Bowyer frustrated by recent Cup struggles, focused on improving
By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, July 19, 2008
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MADISON, Ill. – Clint Bowyer says he is puzzled and frustrated by his recent struggles in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Since winning at Richmond International Raceway on May 3, the Richard Childress Racing driver has posted just two top-10 finishes and one top-five.
With his 22nd-place finish in last Saturday’s LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Bowyer fell to 13th in the season standings.
“The last month or month-and-a-half for us in the Cup cars, it’s just uncharacteristic of us. It’s been hard to handle,” Bowyer said at Gateway International Raceway, site of tonight’s Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Nationwide Series race. “I mean all of us are working hard. It’s always easy to run good and hard to run bad. Every time it seems like you’re running bad you just work harder and you can’t find it. Every team’s gone through it.
"And I think this is really the first time that we’ve actually as a team – the 07 car with [crew chief] Gil [Martin] and everybody – that we’re just struggling.”
In order to get back in position to qualify for the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup, the driver says his team’s performance must improve on the intermediate-sized tracks that make up most of the Cup schedule.
“It’s on the mile-and-a-half [tracks], it’s not like we’re struggling everywhere,” said Bowyer, who is 27 points back of the 12th and final Chase spot. “The short tracks we’re still good. We’ve still got a good short-track program. It’s just typically in the past the mile-and-a-halves have been our bread and butter tracks for us. It was an easy top 10 and it’s just not right now. I mean, it’d be like a win to finish in the top 10 right now on a mile-and-a-half for us.
“We’re just missing a piece of the puzzle and I’ve got 100 percent confidence in those guys that they’re going to be able to find it.”
Bowyer has had no trouble being confident in his Nationwide Series effort with RCR. On the merits of one win, eight top-five finishes and 17 top-10s, Bowyer is the series points leader by 183 over JR Motorsports’ Brad Keselowski entering tonight's race.
“It makes it easier to forget about [the Cup struggles] when you come over here,” Bowyer said at Gateway. “That’s a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel at the end of the day is knowing that you’re going to come over here and get in this car and run up front and be leading the points right now. So that is a little bit of a breath of fresh air for us, for me in particular.”
Still, he isn’t comfortable with his cushion in the standings.
“It’s by no way, shape or form what I consider a nice lead. It’s better than 20 points but you rattle off two bad races in a row and they’re right there,” Bowyer said. “We’ve got to keep working on our game, racing to win each and every week. … The thing is you can’t afford to make that many gutsy calls there at the end of the race that may or may not win you the race when you’re leading the points.
“That’s the only thing that’s frustrating about being the points leader. ... But other than that, hey, this is where you want to be. You want to be leading.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Clint Bowyer
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