Race for the Chase heats up

Associated Press

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.

Clint Bowyer is a marked man, and he is up for the challenge as NASCAR goes road racing again.

“This is a big race for us,” Bowyer said Friday before struggling in the first Sprint Cup practice session over the 11-turn, 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International layout. “If I can get out of here with a top-10 finish, that’s going to set us up good for these last four races.”

As the driver sitting in the most precarious position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage, Bowyer sits 12th in the points standings with five races remaining before the Chase for the championship. His challenge is to hold on to that final transfer spot into the 10-race postseason as he prepares for Sunday’s often-treacherous road race.

Bowyer leads 13th-place Mark Martin by only 34 points. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is next, 95 points behind Martin but only 54 points ahead of 18th-place David Reutimann as seven drivers remain in the mix.

“We’ve got to be able to get every position possible,” said Bowyer, who has four top-10 finishes in nine career starts on road courses.

Ditto for Ryan Newman, who made the Chase a year ago along with his boss, Tony Stewart, in the first season for Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart is eighth in the standings, but although Newman won at Phoenix he has failed to finish four races and is 138 points behind Bowyer.

If the pressure is mounting, it’s subtle right now.

“Obviously, we would both rather be in real nice and comfortable and secure, but there’s nothing we can do but do the same things we’ve been doing every week,” Stewart said. “If you try to do something different and you try to do something extra, you normally force yourself into an unwanted mistake.

“He [Newman] has had some miserable luck this year, and that’s hurt us,” Stewart said. “We’re doing everything we can to help him, but you’re careful to not try to reinvent the wheel all of a sudden in four weeks.”