Talladega Superspeedway
Thursday, April 26, 2007
• Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 205 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. This is a brand new Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet hand-crafted for this weekend’s Aaron’s 499.
• Back in Black ... After featuring a DIRECTV paint scheme last weekend in Phoenix, Bowyer’s No. 07 Chevy will return to its traditional black and white Jack Daniel’s colors this weekend at Talladega.
• No Place To Go But Up ... In two NEXTEL Cup starts at Talladega, Bowyer has an average start of 23.5 and 37.5 finishing average. The Emporia, Kan., driver has completed 187 laps of the 376 laps contested over those two starts. Bowyer was leading at Talladega last fall with 50 laps to go, faded to 12th and was collected by the notorious “big wreck,” strapping him a 35th-place finish.
• Strong Sophomore Start ... In the season’s first eight races, Bowyer has earned three top 10s and has only finished outside the top 25 once. He currently enjoys a solid 13.3 starting average and a 15.4 finishing average. The 27-year-old driver has completed 2,664 of the 2,694 total laps run this season (98.88 percent) and is ninth in points. Over those same eight races last season, Bowyer’s average start was 24.3 coupled with a 17.1 finishing average. He was 12th in points at this time last year.
• Bowyer is ranked 12th in NASCAR’s Average Running Position category (14.335) and is currently the sport’s fifth best Closer – a statistic derived from the number of positions improved over the last 10 percent of each race. He is 11th in the Driver Rating category (87.5). The Driver Rating is a formula that combines the following categories: wins, finishes, 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 points 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.
• Bowyer took delivery of a brand-new Rocket dirt late model Saturday, April 14th. He’ll knock the shine off of it this Friday and Saturday night when he will race the Jack Daniel’s-sponsored entry at the Talladega Short Track (TSS), located directly across the street from Talladega Superspeedway.
• In addition to his duties behind the wheel of the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, Bowyer returns to the seat of the No. 2 Camping World Chevy for this weekend’s Busch Series event at Talladega. The Aaron’s 312 will be televised live on ABC Saturday, April 28th beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
• Up to Speed ... The Aaron’s 499 from Talladega Superspeedway gets underway Sunday, April 29 at 2 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised live on FOX and broadcast worldwide on the MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.
CLINT BOWYER QUOTES
You finished 40th and 35th last year at Talladega. On the positive side, there’s nowhere to go but up.
“It’s funny because I’ve always run really well at Daytona and for some reason I seem to crash at Talladega. It seems like I always run into bad luck when we go down there. In spring race last year, I knew they were going to wreck and I elected to fall back and hang out in the back. Me and Kevin (Harvick) both did the same thing. There were about three cars behind us when they started wrecking up front. We got checked up and I’ll be darned if those three cars didn’t run us over. That was proof enough for me that dropping to the back and waiting for them to wreck doesn’t work. You have to go out there, try and lead laps and win the race.”
Does the new pavement make the races at Talladega better? Are the cars easier to handle now with the new surface?
“Handling is not an issue. That’s what will make the racing that much better to watch for the fans. You can get away with so much more. You make aggressive moves, race even closer and then you end up getting into somebody. That part of it doesn’t come out so good. You get into somebody and you end up wrecking. Unfortunately, the new pavement doesn’t make the cars handle any better when you get wrecked.”
Do you think the racing will be a lot crazier than what we see at Daytona?
“I think so. If you’re handling well at Daytona, you can get runs on people and get by them. You get the right push at the right time type of thing. At Talladega, you just have to push, push, push and use the full-court press the whole time. You have to be aggressive the whole race. You’re running as close as you can to everyone you’re around trying to get to the cars in front of you and you’re being hit from behind as well. The cars that don’t handle are fast at Talladega. Everyone’s fast. It’s just a lot closer quarters racing at Talladega and that makes it harder and a lot more nerve-wracking.”