Race 2 Win: NEXTEL Cup Series Race Notes

Nextel Cup Series

LifeLock 400 - Clint Bowyer Notes

Clint Bowyer
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date: LifeLock 400 – September 30, 2007
Venue: Kansas Speedway – Kansas City, Kan.

NOTES:

This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Kansas Speedway … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 170 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) NASCAR Cup Series stable. This is the same Jack Daniel’s Chevy Monte Carlo SS Bowyer raced to a 13th-place place finish in July at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is also the same car Bowyer raced to a 10th-place finish earlier this year at Chicagoland Speedway and to a sixth-place finish in February at California Speedway. Additionally, Bowyer drove this car in March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and was half-a-second faster than the leaders in the late goings until the car got away from him and suffered a 36th-place result. Built new for last year’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Bowyer started second and went on to finish fourth and record what was then his career-best Cup Series finish. Bowyer also raced this No. 07 Chevy to a third-place finish last fall at California. This car also saw action last August at Michigan (started 29th – finished 33rd), at Kansas (started sixth – finished ninth) and Texas (started 14th – finished fifth) in October and in the 2006 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (started 10th – finished 10th).

Back in Black … After featuring a DIRECTV paint scheme last week in Dover, Bowyer’s No. 07 Chevy returns to it traditional black and white Jack Daniel’s look this weekend in Kansas. Local Boy Does Good … Bowyer, a native of Emporia, Kansas, grew up just over 100 miles southwest of Kansas Speedway. He graduated from Emporia High School and attended Flint Hills Technical College, also located in Emporia.

Bowyer in the Loop …

Kansas in Review … In his lone Cup Series start at Kansas Speedway, Bowyer started sixth, led three times for 43 laps and finished ninth. He was leading the race with just over 100 laps to go before the Jack Daniel’s Chevy got away from him between turns one and two. In three Busch Series races at the mile-and-a half Kansas City oval, the Emporia, Kan., driver has a pair of top-10 starts and one top-five finish.

What a Difference a Year Makes … Over the season’s first 28 races, Bowyer has recorded one win, two poles, three top-five and 13 top-10 finishes. He has a 16.1 starting average and a 14.3 finishing average. He has completed 7,981 of 8,099 total laps contested (98.54 percent) and sits sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series championship point standings. Heading into Kansas last season, Bowyer had a 20.9 starting average, a 19.5 average finish and was 16th in points. He had three top fives and just eight top 10s at this point last year.

Speaking of Stats … Bowyer is the NASCAR Cup Series’ sixth-best Closer – a statistic derived from the number of positions improved over the last 10 percent of each race. Bowyer has gained an average of 1.214 spots over the season’s first 28 races and has improved a total of 34 positions over the closing 10 percent of those same races. The Emporia, Kan., native has also logged 4,756 of the 8,099 laps completed this season (58.7 percent) running in the top 15. Bowyer is ranked 13th in NASCAR’s Average Running Position category (15.353) and is also 13th in the Driver Rating category (86.5). The Driver Rating is a formula that combines the following categories: wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The Driver Rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.

Looking to Bring Up the Average … Surprisingly enough, in 17 races at Kansas Speedway, RCR has only one top-five and just two top-10 finishes. Jeff Burton finished fifth last year while Bowyer went on to finish ninth. Kevin Harvick notched a sixth-place effort in October, 2003. All totaled, RCR’s three car team has a 22.9 starting average and an 18.1 average finish at the metropolitan Kansas City race course. The only other tracks on the current schedule where RCR hasn’t earned Cup Series wins are California Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Dirt’s for Racing. Pavement’s for Getting There … Bowyer has a busy week in store when he returns to Kansas this week. On Wednesday night, Bowyer, along with RCR development driver Austin Dillon and fellow Cup Series competitors Ken Schrader, Kenny Wallace and David Ragan will race dirt modifieds in the second annual Capital City Clash at Heartland Park Topeka’s three-eighths-mile dirt oval. On Friday night, he returns to Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City for the Capital Federal Savings Late Model Showdown. Dillon, son of RCR’s VP of Competition Mike Dillon and team owner Richard Childress’ grandson, will also be on hand for the evening’s card. Before he was hand-picked by Childress to share the No. 21 Busch Series ride with Harvick in 2004, Bowyer won dirt modified championships at Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, Kan., (2000), Heartland Park Topeka (2001), Lakeside Speedway (2001 & 2002) and a late model crown at the famed I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo. (2002). The 28-year-old driver is the 2002 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Midwest Division Champion.

Keep on Rolling … Bowyer has yet to record a DNF (did not finish) in 2007. He and Harvick are the only two Chase drivers to have finished every race this season. Bowyer has been running at the end of every race dating back to Bristol last August, a streak of 41 races.

Meet the Driver … Bowyer will sign autographs Sunday, September 30 from 9:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer. A limited number of tickets to obtain autographs will be available at the trailer the morning of the event and are limited in supply due to time constraints.

A Little Taste of Lynchburg … Bowyer will appear at the Jack Daniel’s Experience Sunday, September 30th from 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. The Jack Daniel’s Experience is a 53-foot tractor- trailer filled with artifacts, state-of-the art video monitors, sound system and graphics to give race fans a taste of Lynchburg and the Distillery. The Jack Daniel’s Experience will be located in the display area, outside the front straightaway, and will be open on Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., on Saturday from 8 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Logging Laps for the Hometown Crowd … In addition to his duties behind the wheel of the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, Bowyer returns to the seat of the No. 2 BB&T Chevy for this weekend’s Busch Series event in Kansas. The Yellow Transportation 300 from Kansas Speedway will be televised live on ESPN2 on Saturday, September 29 beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The race will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying will be televised the same day on SPEED beginning at 11 a.m. EDT.

Catch all the Cup Action … Live coverage of the LifeLock 400 from Kansas Speedway will take the green flag Sunday, September 30 at 1 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised on ABC and broadcast worldwide on MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the third round of NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs will be televised live on ESPN2 Friday, September 28 at 4 p.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide live qualifying updates.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTES
You’ve got a busy week ahead of you.
“I can’t wait to get back home. It’s going to be a big week. I’m excited to run the dirt cars and having the opportunity to go back and see everyone. This is an important race for me. Last year we almost got our first Cup win at Kansas. Last year was the first time I actually led a significant amount of laps and I felt like, as a team, we stood on our own two feet. You know, we had something for them. If I hadn’t made a mistake, I think we had a legitimate shot to win the race. Nonetheless, we were fast and that’s all you can ask for. It’s so nerve-wracking to go to your home track because that’s where you want to be able to perform and run well. If you can run up front, lead laps and be in contention to win in front of the hometown crowd – that’s important. “

Do you feel like you put to much pressure on yourself last year?
“I definitely did. Running up front with Jimmie Johnson, who has won so many races and then being able to lead, there was a ton of pressure. It was a weird deal. People were spinning out all day and I changed my line to pass a lapped car and just lost it. I wasn’t running where I had been all day and it just bit me. It caught me off guard and I lost it. “

Did you kind of feel like Superman when you got out front?
“It’s just such a cool feeling. I took the lead coming off turn four and the people in the grandstand caught my eye. I could see them standing up and cheering for me so that was really cool.”

Do you feel like before you hang it up that Kansas Speedway is the one place where you have to win?
“Absolutely. It would be so cool to be able to celebrate a victory with everybody who has helped me and supported me during my career. I’ve got so many family and friends who will be there and then there’s everyone who I used to race with. It’s just everything that goes along with racing an hour-and-a-half away from where I grew up. Lakeside Speedway is only five miles up the road. Kansas Speedway is definitely a special place for me and a place where I want to win.”

Does running the dirt races this week give you a chance to get back in you element, forget about the pressure of the Cup race and the Chase and just have a good time?
“It’s going to be a long week and it’s going to be a lot of work but it’s important. It’s fun to be able to go back there and run some dirt races. We’re going to run my modified at Heartland Park, one of my old stomping grounds, Wednesday night and Lakeside Speedway with Richard’s (Childress) grandson Austin on Friday night. Dirt racing is a stress reliever for me. It’s going to be a fun week but then it’s down to business come Saturday and Sunday.”

What kind of reaction do you get when you go back to the short tracks?
“It’s just very gratifying to go back to a race track where everyone is proud of you and you have a big following. It certainly makes me proud. The reaction from the other driver’s is a little different because we usually run pretty well. Now when I go back and all those guys have been racing those cars every week for the last three or four years and I haven’t, it’s a lot harder to beat those guys. It’s more pressure to go back to those places and run well and try and beat all those guys. They’re all on top of their game. They want to beat the Cup guys. They want to beat they guy who made it when they didn’t. They’ll rough you up in a hurry.”