NASCAR Cup Series

Bowyer opts to really race Talladega

Published Oct. 23, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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It didn't take a strong car, and it didn't take tremendous talent. After 188 laps at Talladega Superspeedway, it was the luckiest driver that survived.

On Sunday, that driver was Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer worked with teammate Jeff Burton throughout the afternoon and then was the pusher for the final two-lap run when the race went green. Coming to the checkered flag, Bowyer broke the draft and the teammates made contact before his No. 33 Chevrolet crossed the line just 0.018-seconds ahead of Burton.

While drivers' emotions erupted around him, Bowyer’s calm and cool demeanor helped carry him to his fifth career NASCAR Sprint Cup win.

“It was methodical, and I wanted to stay up front,” Bowyer said of his run. “I told (Burton) that we needed to stay up front and stay racing with these guys, that way, when the time comes, we would have practiced and were ready for it and we can race like the end of the race needs to be raced.

“That restart we got bunched up before everybody else. I was really, really worried about (Tony Stewart), (Paul Menard), the Red Bull cars were hooked up; I didn’t think it was going to (work) like that, but sure glad it did. Obviously, I was trying to figure out where to pass him, and I said, ‘Aww, I am at least going to give him a shot at it. I am going to try it early and it’s going to be a drag race.’”

Considering the Good Sam Club 500 was riddled with six cautions over the final 80 laps, Burton — like many of the 27 racers that finished on the lead lap — simply felt fortunate to finish and not end the day on the wrecker.

“I thought (Bowyer) made the move too early, but he didn’t,” Burton said. “I’m pissed off and happy at the same time.”

The Bowyer-Burton tandem did not take the conservative route. They opted to stay up front ahead of the craziness and led 51 of 188 laps between them. The decision paid off for Richard Childress Racing with a one-two finish. Dave Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers rounded out the top five.

Childress, who collected his 100th Cup win as an owner and a series-best 12th victory at Talladega, insisted on making this event a race and not a ride-along.

“I was really proud of RCR cars all day,” Childress said. “These fans pay a lot of money. ... All of our RCR cars race to give these fans a show. We didn't sit in the back and ride till the last minute. Our cars ran all day long. We don't get paid to ride in the back. I'm proud of every one of 'em. I'm proud of Clint getting the win.”

Still, several star-studded tandems elected to play the waiting game and run at the back of the pack. When the dust settled after 3 1/2 hours, points leader Carl Edwards was likely the most fortuitous of all of them.

Finishing 11th brought Edwards nearly as much joy as a win. Edwards has never cared for Talladega nor has he been successful on the 2.66-mile track where he has just one top-five finish. He entered the weekend with an average finish of 20.3. But the strategy of running at the back of the pack, along with the teamwork between he and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle, paid off, allowing Edwards to maintain a 14-point lead over RFR’s Matt Kenseth, who finished 18th.

The Hendrick Motorsports tandem of Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. — clearly two of the favorites entering the race — adopted a similar stay-in-the-back gameplan, but did not get similar results. Their Chevrolets trailed the field most of the day. While Johnson seemed apprehensive and had curious water-pressure issues, Junior was ready to rock 'n' roll — but go-time came a little too late

“We raced a little bit, but not a whole lot whenever we thought they were getting a little bit crazy. We'd move into the safe areas, and we rode there most of the day, with a lot of other people doing the same thing,” Earnhardt said. “Then at the end, we had a lot of cautions late. We wanted to try to work our way toward the front in the last 20 laps.

“The cautions kept coming out, and we ran over some debris and we had to come to pit road. We just didn't have the track position at the end to make a run with two laps to go. Just not enough time."

Keselowski and Stewart, who finished seventh, had very different days but similar outcomes. Keselowski benefited by staying the course with Blaney on Sunday, who enabled the Chaser to pick up his best finish at Talladega since his win in 2009. Keselowski’s fourth-place finish allowed him to vault three positions to third in the standings.

Stewart had one of the best cars throughout the race, but dumped his dancing partner, teammate Ryan Newman, 80 laps into the event.

“I screwed up and got out of sync with Ryan and crashed him, and after that you just had to pick up whoever you could pick up,” Stewart said. “We had a good run with Joey (Logano) there for a long time and were lucky enough to pick Paul Menard up.

“I had good partners to push with. Paul and Joey both did a great job, and Ryan did a great job. I let Ryan down today.”

But don’t expect Smoke to lose sleep over his mistake. As they say, "That’s just racing" at Talladega.

Get the point

Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch were just along for the ride on Sunday — and it was an adventure all three Chase contenders would just as soon forget.

Both Harvick and Kyle Busch were involved in a six-car wreck on Lap 104 triggered when Marcos Ambrose sent teammate AJ Allmendinger across the noses of the Nos. 18 and 1 of Busch and Jamie McMurray and collected Harvick in the process.

“We're in it ... all beat up,” Harvick reported to the crew. “The hood is hanging off of it. ... It's hanging on by the tethers. Let's get it fixed. They're going to wreck again.”

Harvick’s No. 29 team made a valiant effort to fix the car on pit road. While most of the damage was corrected, smoke began filling the cockpit and the driver was forced to pit repeatedly.

When it was no longer feasible to fix the No. 18 Toyota, Busch was forced to the garage. Harvick would follow on Lap 125 after NASCAR black-flagged the car for light smoke after the No. 29 Chevrolet‘s oil cooler was damaged.

The drivers returned to competition, but Harvick and Busch finished 32nd and 33rd in the race and dropped to fifth and sixth, respectively, in the points standings.

Kurt Busch’s day took a dramatic turn after he was collected in a wreck involving Michael Waltrip and Bobby Labonte. Busch was running in the top 10 before Waltrip punted Labonte’s car off into the No. 22 Dodge of Busch.

“Just had nowhere to go,” Busch said. “The 47 (of Labonte) got flung by Michael Waltrip, he went low, we went high, and he was starting to come back up when I was zigging and zagging. Our championship hopes are done just because of this two-car Talladega draft.”

Busch was scored 36th. He dropped to eighth in the points standings and trails Edwards by 52 points.

Mystery move

Was anyone else surprised when Joey Logano backed away from Tony Stewart in the tandem draft?

Stewart may be close to adding Logano’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, to his organization shortly, but you can bet that Joe Gibbs Racing certainly wasn’t going to facilitate another win for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Numbers game

2: Transporters damaged by Furniture Row Racing in the last year.

2: Career finishes of third at Talladega for Dave Blaney.

26: Jimmie Johnson’s Talladega finish — and he still moved up to seventh in the points standings.

30: Laps led by Tony Stewart, the most of any driver on Sunday.

Say what

Trevor Bayne took to Twitter to explain why he dumped Jeff Gordon and dropped back to help Ford teammate Matt Kenseth:

“I'm not happy about what this has become... It's too premeditated. We should be able to go with whoever is around is..I would have rather pulled over and finished last than tell @JeffGordonWeb I would work with him and then be strong armed into bailing…”

While Bayne has a solid point, apparently he didn’t receive the “One Ford” memo. Earlier in the week, Roush Fenway Racing held a meeting with the message that all Ford racers would pull together to win the championship.

Ford drivers Edwards and Kenseth left Talladega first and second in the points standings.
 

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