Clint Bowyer finishes seventh to control Chase destiny
Clint Bowyer's seventh-place finish at Atlanta left him in control of his Chase destiny.
// LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
HAMPTON, Ga. – Clint Bowyer didn’t need to know how many points ahead of Ryan Newman he was after the Emory Healthcare 500 on Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
All he knew is that he finished ahead of all of his challengers for the 12th and final spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup with just one race left – next Saturday at Richmond – before the 12-driver field is set.
“We’re running out of races and we’re gaining points,” Bowyer said after his seventh-place finish. “That’s a good feeling.”
Bowyer has a 117-point edge on Ryan Newman, who finished eighth, and only needs to finish 28th or better to clinch a spot in the Chase to make Newman's performance at Richmond irrelevant. If Bowyer leads a lap, he could finish 29th.
“We can’t expect to make it up in one race what we didn’t do in 25,” said Newman, who moved up two spots in the standings. “It was a great run. … We mathematically have a chance and from an engineering guy, that means something. I can only try my hardest. I did that tonight.
“We can’t expect to make it all up in one shot.”
Ten drivers have clinched a spot in the Chase. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon had clinched prior to Atlanta, while Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin all clinched at Atlanta.
Greg Biffle has a 161-point edge on Newman and just needs to lead a lap at Richmond or finish 42nd at Richmond and the Roush Fenway Racing driver is in the Chase.
“We’re 161 points ahead, so I’ve got to beat one car if [Newman] wins and leads all the laps, so we’re pretty much locked in,” Biffle said.
While Newman basically kept pace with Bowyer, a flat tire hurt Jamie McMurray's run. After the tire gave way, McMurray lost a lap before getting back on the lead lap thanks to the free pass on lap 263.
But he could only rally to 15th and is now 128 points behind Bowyer. If Bowyer finishes 31st or better at Richmond, McMurray will be eliminated.
Heading into Atlanta, McMurray seemed to be Bowyer’s biggest challenger and finishing ahead of McMurray was important to the Richard Childress Racing driver.
“It was a good run,” said Bowyer, who, like the rest of the RCR drivers, failed to make the Chase in 2009. “I was really proud fo the guys. We kept digging. We were way off early in the race. … All the guys kept digging, kept working and I was proud of the effort.”
The effort certainly paid off as the team adjusted on the car throughout the night.
“We probably were a little bit lucky [tonight],” Bowyer crew chief Shane Wilson said. “We’ve had some days where we’ve been really good and didn’t get anything out of it. It was kind of nice to have one go our way.
“That extra 20 points or whatever we got this week, doesn’t seem big right now but it will be big at Richmond. Basically what we’ll have to do there is stay out of trouble and finish and we’ll probably be fine.”
Mark Martin, the other driver in contention, had a bad night. He finished 21st and fell to 147 points behind Bowyer. To make the Chase, Martin needs to win at Richmond, and if he leads the most laps, needs Bowyer to finish 39th or worse as well as McMurray to finish fourth or worse.
“We really weren’t that far off on our balance, we just didn’t have the speed,” Martin said on television afterward. “Some of the runs on the long runs, we got OK, really fairly close to the leaders’ times but I was three quarters of a lap behind and was so bad on the restarts. … We’ve just got to get our stuff faster.
“That car was set up with all different stuff than we had been running. Pretty much the same results.”
