Bowyer looks forward to tonight

By Jim Pedley

Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

RICHMOND, VA.

Clint Bowyer will start tonight’s Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway as arguably one of the hottest drivers in the series. He would like to leave the three-quarter-mile oval as the undisputed hottest driver in the series.

History and the man himself make it sound as though that could happen.

“Richmond is a neat track,” Bowyer said. “I’ve won there in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series. That track has always been good to me, and we always seem to run well there. I’m looking forward to going back there.”

Bowyer will take the green flag in the Crown Royal Presents The Matthew & Daniel Hansen 400 looking for his fifth straight top-10 finish. Two of those top 10s are second-place finishes in his past two races, at Texas and Talladega.

The past month has enabled Bowyer to shake free of his early-season frustrations: He was 24th in points after the first four races, which culminated with an engine failure with 44 laps to go at Bristol that resulted in a DNF and 35th-place finish.

“I mean, I’m very proud of our race team to get things turned around,” said Bowyer, who began 2011 with high expectations after winning two of the 10 Chase races in 2010. “The first four races were just terrible, and we dug in deep and got things turned around and had a decent run at Martinsville and just kind of continued to build on that and get that ball rolling, get the monkey off your back, and the last two races we finished second.”

Bowyer’s four top 10s in a row ties his second-longest streak — he had seven in a row in 2008, and it ended, coincidentally, at Richmond with Bowyer’s second Cup victory. His average finish of 9.8 at the track is bettered only by Kyle Busch (5.3) and Denny Hamlin (8.0) among active drivers.

Like many drivers, Bowyer lists Richmond as one of his favorites.

“I think Richmond is the perfect-sized racetrack,” he said. “As a fan of this sport, you get to see everything. You get the sensation of speed. You get to see all of us beating and banging on each other on the track. It’s just a perfect-sized racetrack. I wish we had about three or four more of them on the schedule.

“These double-file restarts really make entering Turn 1 pretty wild. It’s three or four wide, and if someone doesn’t give, they’re going to wreck at least one car or several of them. That’s what’s neat about it,” he added.

A victory tonight would send Bowyer into the month of May as Cup’s hottest driver and put him good standing to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the fourth time.

“I think the cream is going to rise to the top, no different than it ever has,” he said. “It’s still early in the season, but it feels good to be able to get on a little bit of a roll here, and hopefully we can continue to ride that wave.”