Bowyer 4th in Busch at Daytona
Monday, February 19, 2007
Clint Bowyer once again demonstrated his moxie on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, this time notching a fourth-place finish in his debut behind the wheel of the No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet in Saturday’s Orbitz 300 NASCAR Busch Series race.
The Emporia, Kan., native started the 120-lap event 26th and used two early caution periods to his advantage. The early stops allowed his Dan Deeringhoff-led crew to fine-tune his BB&T Chevy and Bowyer made his way into the top 10 in less than 25 laps.
From there, Bowyer methodically plotted his course to the front of the field and cracked the top five by the event’s 45th circuit. He was third on lap 49, fell back to fourth on lap 52, but rocketed into second as the field crossed the start/finish line to complete lap 63.
The third and final caution flag of the day waved on the same lap and Bowyer peeled off the racing surface to make his final pit stop of the day. Deeringhoff called for four fresh tires, including an air pressure adjustment in both left-side tires, and following blistering-fast service, Bowyer snatched the lead coming out of the pits.
Back under green, now atop the leader board, the legendary draft at Daytona proved to be fickle and it only took half-a-lap before the front runners dive-bombed the No. 2 machine on the low side, shuffling Bowyer back to fifth.
He would fade back as far as seventh as the day wore on but patiently worked his way back into the top five again and, by lap 90, was drafting for the top spot with teammate and eventual winner Kevin Harvick.
As the race wound down, Bowyer raced in the top five and was in position to finish third but was nipped at the line by a scant four one-thousandths of a second.
Bowyer and the BB&T racing team will take a two-week hiatus before returning to the track next month at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
CLINT BOWYER QUOTES:
“We had a really good car. The BB&T Chevrolet was awesome and when you have a car that runs that good, it’s a lot of fun. I was sliding around as the tires wore and really had a blast out there. Kevin’s car was working so well on the bottom that the only way I had a chance at the win was going around on the high side. We’re not running for points, we’re running for wins so shame on me if I would have stayed in line and didn’t try to make something happen.”