Clint Bowyer
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Downhome Punch Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: GFS Marketplace 400 – August 20, 2006
Venue: Michigan International Speedway – Brooklyn, Mich.
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at Michigan International Speedway … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 170 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. Built new for 2006, this is the same Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Bowyer raced to a career-best fourth-place finish two weeks ago at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Doin’ it Downhome Style … Bowyer’s No. 07 Chevy will feature a Jack Daniel’s Downhome Punch paint scheme this weekend at MIS.
Ring the Bell, We Have a Winner … John Carlson of Grove City, Ohio is the lucky winner of the Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails “Chose Your Favorite Car” sweepstakes. In addition to a Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails Racing Party Pack, Carlson will attend this weekend’s race at MIS as a guest of Jack Daniel’s and meet Bowyer on Sunday morning prior to the race.
Everyone’s A Winner This Week … Mr. Jack’s pit crew earned the Checkers/Rally’s Double Drive-Thru Challenge in last weekend’s AMD at The Glen. Checkers/Rally’s will award the Jack Daniels crew with the $10,500 prize given each week to the team that spends the least amount of time on pit road. In addition, the crew that scores most pit crew challenge wins at the completion of the 36-race schedule will receive a $105,000 bonus. The “Old No. 7 Gang” spent just 88.019 seconds on pit lane at Watkins Glen. Bowyer’s over-the-wall team includes: Carey Wimbish (jackman), Dail Long (front-tire carrier), Shane Westerberg (front-tire changer), Dustin Stanley (rear-tire carrier), Tommy Wallace (rear-tire changer), Ron Liddell (gasman), Clint Almquist (catch can) and Troy Welty (windshield). The team’s pit stop coordinator is Corinne Mauldin.
RCR at Michigan … RCR team owner Richard Childress has earned two wins at MIS, both of them coming with Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt snagged the checkered flag in the Miller American 400 on June 28, 1987 and again in the Miller Genuine Draft 400 on June 24, 1990. Additionally, RCR boasts 15 top-five and 32 top-10 finishes with seven different drivers including Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s top division, who recorded top 10s at Michigan in June 1978 and August 1979.
Wakin’ Up With the Raybestos Rookies … Bowyer, along with fellow Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidates Reed Sorenson and Denny Hamlin will be the featured guests during this week’s NEXTEL Wake-up Call in the MIS infield Media Center Friday at 9:30 a.m. Bowyer is currently second in the Rookie of the Year standings and sits 17th in the NEXTEL Cup Series championship points race. To date, the 27-year-old, Emporia, Kan., native has earned a pair of top-five and six top-10 finishes during his rookie campaign.
Clint Bowyer Live … Bowyer will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer Sunday, August 20 from 11 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Tickets for autographs will be available at the trailer the morning of the race and are limited in supply due to time constraints.
Double Duty in the Irish Hills … As usual, Bowyer returns to the seat of the No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet for this weekend’s CARFAX 250 NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) race at MIS Saturday, August 19. The race will be televised live on TNT beginning at 2:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio. Bowyer is fourth in the NBS championship battle, 73 points out of third and 177 behind second. Bowyer’s RCR teammate Kevin Harvick holds a commanding 443 point margin over second-place Carl Edwards.
Catch the Action … Live coverage of the GFS Marketplace 400 from Michigan International Speedway will take the green flag Sunday, August 20 at beginning at 2 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised on TNT and broadcast from coast to coast on MRN and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 23rd of 36 points-paying races on the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series schedule will be televised live on SPEED Friday, August 18 at 3 p.m. EDT. MRN and XM Satellite Radio will also provide live qualifying updates.
CLINT BOWYER QUOTES:
Dissect your first NEXTEL Cup race at Michigan.
“We struggled at Michigan in June. We brought a car that had a little different body on it than what I had been used to running and I just couldn’t get it into the corner. We fought loose during the whole race and then someone spun out in front of us, put up a huge cloud of smoke that I couldn’t see through and I ran right into the wreck. I’ve watched the replay a hundred times and I still wonder how I did that. From the seat, I just flat out couldn’t see. All of a sudden it went from smoke out to an ‘orange car in front of you,’ to too late (laughs). I ran into him and that pretty much ruined our day. We’re bringing the same car we ran at Indy and that’s obviously a car I’m comfortable with so hopefully, we’ll have a lot better run.”
Is it a different race in the Cup Car than it is in a Busch Car?
“Á little bit. The cars handle a little bit different from one another at high speed race tracks. We had a dominant car in the Busch race last year at Michigan, so I have no doubt once we get back there with this car we’ll be just fine.”
You’ve already run a bunch more races than you did all of last year in the Busch Series. Is it starting to wear on you at all?
“A little bit but I’m starting to get the itch. Things are really coming around with both the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet on the Cup side and with the ACDelco Chevy on the Busch side. When you get in slumps, or whatever you want to call them, you tend to lose your drive a little bit and lose focus. You almost start to forget about the big picture. But we’ve put together some good runs in both cars and that’s exactly what we needed. We’ve had a couple of hiccups the last couple weeks with the Busch car but other than that we have a pretty good roll going on both sides of the garage. I’ve been antsy all week to get back to the race track.”
