November 4, 2012
Clint Bowyer Texas Race Summary
Clint Bowyer Race Summary: No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota driver Clint Bowyer finished sixth in Sunday’s 500-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver started fourth and demonstrated early his Toyota was as fast as anyone’s on the track. Bowyer climbed as high as second in the first half of the race. Jimmie Johnson set a blistering pace but Bowyer never ventured to far from the front. In the closing laps, the Brian Pattie-led team positioned itself to win the race on fuel mileage. Bowyer raced third and the top two drivers couldn’t finish without a stop. But, a caution with 23 laps remaining ended those hopes. Bowyer raced through another caution and a green-white-checkered ending to finish sixth. Bowyer and the 5-hour ENERGY team return to action Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in the ninth race in NASCAR’s 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. Bowyer is third in the Chase just points 36 points out of first.
- Started fourth and finished sixth.
- One of the fastest cars on track throughout race.
- Could have won the race on fuel mileage but caution with 23 to go ended chance.
- Survived wild racing in final laps to finish sixth.
BOWYER: “We were close, but no cigar. That’s what we were all about tonight. The one thing that could have won us the race just didn’t play out with the cautions. I really felt like we were doing a good job with our fuel mileage thing. I thought we were sitting pretty good there until that caution came out with 26 (laps) to go. That being said, you can’t be greedy. We could have had right-front (tire) trouble again like we did earlier. Solid night. It’s just unbelievable. You keep having these top-10 runs and flirting with the top-fives week in and week out and unless you’re winning these races every week, you just can’t gain points. Even if we were winning right now, it ain’t enough to run them down for a championship. We’re having fun. We’re just taking it week by week. I thought they (Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski) were going to wreck each other, but they didn’t. It would have been awesome -- I really did think they were going to wreck each other.”
Do you feel like the championship is still within reach? “I’ve said this all along -- it’s fun to be racing for the championship, but I’m more proud of where we’re at contending for that championship, winning three races our first year together as a group. Got a long time to work. We just keep polishing the edges and keep getting better fixing our program week in and week out. We’ll be there.”
CHASE STANDINGS (After 8 of 10 races)
RANK DRIVER POINTS BEHIND
1 Jimmie Johnson 2339 Leader
2 Brad Keselowski 2332 -7
3 Clint Bowyer 2303 -36
4 Kasey Kahne 2281 -58
5 Matt Kenseth 2267 -72
6 Jeff Gordon 2267 -72
7 Denny Hamlin 2266 -73
8 Tony Stewart 2259 -80
9 Martin Truex Jr. 2259 -80
10 Greg Biffle 2256 -83
11 Kevin Harvick 2238 -101
12 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2188 -1510
View the Texas Recap Video on Michael Waltrip Racing 
View photos from the race >
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