Race 2 Win: NEXTEL Cup Series Race Notes

Nextel Cup Series

Subway 500 - Clint Bowyer Notes

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

Event/Date: Subway 500 – October 21, 2007
Venue: Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, Va.

NOTES:

This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Martinsville Speedway … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 207 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) NASCAR Cup Series stable. This is a brand new Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS.

Peaking at the Right Time … In the five races since the Chase for the NASCAR Cup began (New Hampshire, Dover, Kansas, Talladega and Charlotte), Bowyer has earned one pole, one win, two second-place finishes, one 11th and one 12th-place effort. With the exception of Dover, Bowyer recorded career-best finishes at four of the five stops. Of the 12 drivers in the Chase, Bowyer ranks first in the Driver Rating (109.1) and Average Running Position (11.482) categories. He has led 21 percent of the laps contested over that period. Over those same five races, Bowyer has logged a compelling 5.6 average finish and is second only to point leader Jeff Gordon (4.0) in that category.

Bowyer in the Loop …

Hoping to Bring up the Average … In three NASCAR Cup Series starts at Martinsville Speedway, Bowyer has an 11th-place finish to call a career best. The Emporia, Kan., native has a 33.3 starting average and an 18.7 average finish at the .526-mile paper clip-shaped oval. In his lone NASCAR Busch Series start at the south-central Virginia track last July, Bowyer won the pole and finished second to teammate Kevin Harvick.

What a Difference a Year Makes … Over the season’s first 31 races, Bowyer has recorded one win, two poles, five top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. He has a 16.4 starting average and, following his runner-up finish last weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, improved his finishing average to 13.4. He has completed 8,716 of 8,834 total laps contested (98.66 percent) and sits third in the NASCAR Cup Series championship point standings, just 10 points behind second-place Jimmie Johnson. Heading into the division’s second stop at Martinsville last season, Bowyer had a 20.4 starting average, a 19.7 average finish and was 17th in points. He had three top fives and nine top 10s at this point last year.

Speaking of Stats … Bowyer is the NASCAR Cup Series’ fifth-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 1.484 spots over the season’s first 31 races and has improved a total of 46 positions over the closing 10 percent of those same races. The Emporia, Kan., native has also logged 5,277 of the 8,834 laps completed this season (59.7 percent) running in the top 15. Bowyer is ranked 11th in NASCAR’s Average Running Position category (15.13) and is also 10th in the Driver Rating category (88.4). 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.

RCR at Martinsville … In 97 previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at Martinsville, RCR has earned three poles and posted six wins between Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt. Additionally, team owner Richard Childress has earned 22 top-five and 37 top-10 finishes dating back to April 10, 1972. Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s top division, contributed four of those top 10s from 1976-1978.

Testing One, Two, Three, Testing … On Wednesday, October 17, Bowyer and the Jack Daniel’s racing team will test at Gateway International Raceway, near St. Louis, in preparation for next month’s Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Keep on Rolling … Bowyer has yet to record a DNF (did not finish) in 2007. He and fellow RCR teammate Kevin 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 44 races.

More Reps … In addition to his duties in the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, Bowyer will also race the Kevin Harvick Inc.-owned No. 2 Camping World Chevrolet Silverado in this weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race. In six previous NCTS starts, Bowyer has one win, two top-five and three top-10 finishes. In his most recent NCTS race driving for KHI, Bowyer started 32nd, was collected in a multi-truck incident and ultimately credited with a 35th-place finish in the New Hampshire 200. The Kroger 200 from Martinsville Speedway will be televised on SPEED Saturday, October 20 beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and broadcast worldwide on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying will be televised live on SPEED the same day at 11 a.m. EDT.

Catch the Action … The Subway 500 from Martinsville Speedway will take the green flag Sunday, October 21 at 1:30 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised live on ABC beginning at 1 p.m. EDT. The race will also be broadcast worldwide on MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for round six of NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs will be televised live on ESPN2 Friday, October 19 at 3:30 p.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide qualifying updates live.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTES
Did the Car of Tomorrow change the race at Martinsville?
“You still see the same guys who have won or run well at Martinsville do the same thing. We’ve picked up our Car of Tomorrow program big time so I think we have the potential to be a threat. A lot of people struggled with the handling of the car in April but everyone has picked up a bunch since then. Tension is going to be high when we get to Martinsville with the Chase as close as it is. Anything can happen so we’re going to have to be careful. Martinsville is still going to be the same so you’ll have some beating and banging and a little bit of rubbing.”

With the way the bumpers line up on the new car, it doesn’t seem like it’s as easy to move someone out of the way anymore.
“That’s what I like about the new car. With the old car, when you’d get into the back of someone, it would lift their rear tires off the ground. That’s why you’d see people spin out a lot of times. Now, you just kind of shove them forward and push them through the corner.”

Everyone talked about Talladega being the wild card in the Chase. Do you think Martinsville is another one?
“It could be. It’s so small that if something happens in front of you there’s just no getting around it. We finished 11th at Martinsville in the spring and we need to get more out of it this time. We knew we’d have to pick up our program and finish better at all these race tracks and I think we can go there this weekend and do better than we’ve done in the past.”