CLINT BOWYER LOOKING AHEASD TO KANSAS SPEEDWAY

Source: Richard Childress Racing
Date: 09/23/2008

* This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Kansas Speedway … Clint

Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 237 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new for 2008, this is the same Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS Bowyer raced to a 10th-place finish Labor Day weekend at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California. He also drove this car to a 19th-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in February and to a sixth-place finish in March at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Chassis No. 237 finished 10th in April at Texas Motor Speedway and was outfitted with a new body and rear clip following the race.

* Local Boy Does Good … Bowyer, a native of Emporia, Kan., grew up

just over 100 miles southwest of Kansas Speedway. He graduated from Emporia High School and attended Flint Hills Technical College, also located in Emporia.

* Back Where it Started … Bowyer began his career racing

motorcycles in his native Kansas when he was five-years-old. He made the transition to four wheels in 1996, racing Street Stocks at Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, Kan. Over the next seven seasons, he went on to win dirt modified championships at Thunderhill Speedway (2000), Lakeside Speedway (2001 & 2002) and Heartland Park Topeka (2001). Bowyer also won an asphalt late model championship at the famed I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo and the 2002 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Midwest Championship. Since then, the third year Sprint Cup Series driver has won six Nationwide Series races and two in NASCAR’s premier division. In 101 Sprint Cup starts, Bowyer boasts two poles, two wins, 13 top-five and 41 top-10 finishes. In 138 races on NASCAR’s junior circuit, he has notched six poles, six wins, 51 top fives and 89 top 10s.

* Round 3 … Bowyer makes his second straight appearance in NASCAR’

s playoff format in just his third full season of Sprint Cup Series competition. He has earned one win, four top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in this season’s opening 28 events. He moved up three positions, from ninth to sixth, in points following his eighth-place finish in last weekend’s Camping World 400 at Dover International Speedway. The 29-year-old driver is just five points behind Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who jumped from 10th to fifth, and 24 back from fellow RCR stablemate Jeff Burton in fourth. With eight races remaining on the 2008 schedule, the two-time Sprint Cup Series winner is 106 points behind leader Carl Edwards in his pursuit of the 2008 Sprint Cup Series championship trophy.

* Hard to Argue With Stats … In two Sprint Cup Series starts at

Kansas Speedway, Bowyer has finished ninth and second, respectively. He has a solid eighth-place starting average coupled with an even stronger

5.5 finishing average at the mile-and-a-half Kansas City, Kan., oval. He has led three times for 43 laps and completed all 477 laps contested over those two races.

* Over the Last Five … Over the last five races, dating back to

the Aug. 23 Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bowyer hasn’t finished any worse than 12th. The third year Sprint Cup Series driver finished seventh at Bristol, 10th at Auto Club Speedway, 12th at Richmond and Loudon and eighth last weekend at Dover. He boasts a 9.8 average finish in the last five races and has completed all 1,850 laps run over that stretch.

* Keep on Rolling … Bowyer has been running at the end of every

race dating back to Phoenix in November 2006, a streak of 65 races. The only other driver running at the end of more consecutive races is Harvick who extended his own modern-era (1972-present) streak last weekend at Dover by finishing his 72nd consecutive race without a DNF (did not finish).

* Good Things Come to Those Who Wait … Surprisingly enough, in 20

starts at Kansas Speedway, RCR has only two top-five and just five top-10 finishes. Bowyer finished second last year while Harvick wound up sixth. In 2006, Burton captured his career-best showing at the 1.5-mile oval by finishing fifth while Bowyer was ninth. Harvick also notched a sixth-place effort in October 2003. All told, RCR’s three-car team has a

22.6 starting average and a 17.6 average finish at the metropolitan Kansas City race course. The only other tracks on the current schedule where RCR hasn’t earned Cup Series wins are Auto Club Speedway of Southern California, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* Meet the Driver … On Thursday, Sept. 25, Bowyer will sign

autographs and greet race fans, 21 and older, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Fuel in Overland Park, Kan. The Emporia, Kan., driver will also participate in a question and answer session. Raffles throughout the evening will benefit the Emporia Community Foundation. Fuel is located at 7300 W. 119th Street in Overland Park.

* Meet the Press … Bowyer will be available Friday, Sept. 26 at

10:30 a.m. inside the speedway’s infield media center to field questions from the gathered media.

* CB at the SPEED Stage … Bowyer will be a guest on this week’s

installment of NASCAR Trackside. The show will air live on SPEED Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The SPEED Stage will be located in the display area, behind the main grandstand.

* A Little Taste of Lynchburg … Bowyer will appear at the Jack

Daniel’s Experience Sunday, Sept. 28th from 9:45 a.m. – 10 a.m. The Jack Daniel’s Experience is a 53-foot tractor- trailer filled with artifacts, state-of-the art video monitors, sound system and graphics to give race fans a taste of Lynchburg and the Distillery. The Jack Daniel’s Experience will be located in the display area, outside the front straightaway, and will be open on Friday from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., on Saturday from 8 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.

* Logging Laps for the Hometown Crowd … In addition to his duties

behind the wheel of the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, Bowyer returns to the seat of the No. 2 BB&T Chevy for this weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race. The Kansas Lottery 300 will be televised live on ESPN2 Saturday, Sept. 27 beginning at 3 p.m. EDT. The race will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 30th of 35 races on the 2008 schedule for NASCAR’s junior division will be televised the same day on SPEED beginning at 11:30 a.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast qualifying updates live.

* Catch all the Cup Action … Live coverage of the Camping World RV

400 presented by Coleman from Kansas Speedway will take the green flag Sunday, Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised on ABC and broadcast worldwide on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 29th of 36 races on the 2008 schedule will be televised live on ESPN2 Friday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide live qualifying updates.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTES

You’ve only had two Cup starts at Kansas Speedway but you’ve run well both times.

“It’s always fun to go back to Kansas. It’s an important race track for me. You always want to go back and run well in front of the hometown crowd. I’m looking forward to getting back there and having some fun.”

Can you talk a little bit about your mile-and-a-half program?

“We’ve been struggling all summer on those types of race tracks. We had a really good run and saw the light at the end of the tunnel a few weeks ago out in California. I know it was just a 10th-place finish but after the finishes we’ve had all summer long on the mile-and-a-halves, that was a big sigh of relief and a good step in the right direction.”

Obviously, Kansas Speedway is a track you look forward to so that has to be a positive in and of itself.

“Absolutely. Knowing that we’ve run well there in the past gives us a lot of confidence going into this weekend.”

As the intensity picks up during the Chase, do you have to gear down a little bit when you get to Kansas?

“Not really. That’s what the Chase is all about. There’s a lot of hype and a lot of attention and exposure. From that standpoint, it’s just another race but, at the same time, it’s an important race for me, personally.”

That race came down to fuel mileage last year. Is that something you guys are going to pay special attention to during practice?

“I’m not going to pay any attention to it. I’m just going to try and be fast. I’ll let Gil (crew chief Gil Martin) and my engineer (Jeremy

Bullins) worry about all of that.”

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