What Might Have Been.

NASCAR Cup Series Clint Bowyer 2012

For most NASCAR fans that remember the 2012 championship will remember it as a head to head fight between Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson with Brad coming out on top. But what gets forgotten is that Clint Bowyer actually had a realistic chance at the title as well. Here is his story, in 2004-2005 he'd race for Richard Childress in the Xfinity Series before being promoted to Cup in 2006. 2 years later he'd finish 3rd and 5th in the points. And then from 2009-2011 he'd wouldn't finish better than 10th so he would join the growing Michael Waltrip Racing team driving the number 15 5 hour energy Toyota. And it wouldn't start off start off super good. Bowyer was in the top 5 in the Daytona 500 but at lap 129 he ran out of fuel and could only recover to 11th and at Phoenix he blow a tire early and finish 6 laps down in 30th. At Las Vegas however after running just inside the top 15 all race the 15 team decided to stay out on a late race caution on to be on the front row for the final restart. He would fall back to 6th place but when you consider how he ran it's a very good result. The half mile at Bristol would give Clint his first top 5 of the season with a 4th place. In California he'd finish in 13th putting him 8th in points. And in Martinsville he is looking to have a great day running in the top 5 all day behind the Hendrick quartet Gordon, Johnson, Dale Jr, and Khane. And when Khane retired for an engine faliure and then a caution came out for David Reutimann stalled on the frontstretch gave a chance for strategy to give Bowyer a chance to pit for fresh tires and be in the catbird seat from 3rd on the restart.

Instead of at least a 3rd or 4th Bowyer finished 10th. So in 6 races Bowyer got 3 top 10s which are a 6th, a top 5 running 4th, and 10th. But he's also finished 11th, 30th, and 13th in the other 3 races. And into the spring and beginning of summer Bowyer would continue to be in a pattern of either being hot or cold. He would be cold with a 17th in Texas and a 36th at his hometown track, Kansas. He would get hot with a 7th in Richmond and 6th in Talladega but would simmer down with an 11th and 13th at Darlington and Charlotte. However, in Dover he would warm back up with a 5th place. The 15 team finished 6th in Pocono after getting a speeding penalty early in the race and 7th in Michigan. Heading to Sonoma he was 9th in the standings 25 points ahead of the closest non chase eligible driver Carl Edwards. With the chase approaching it was clear the Michael Waltrip Racing team needed to win to feel safe. And the entire organization has shown it could be possible with the success they had with all the of the MWR Toyotas in 2012. The 55 was shared by 3 drivers who are Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip, and Brian Vickers. At Bristol with Vickers behind the wheel he finished 5th after leading 125 laps. Martin Truex Jr in the 56 is 7 in the points with 4 top 5s 8 top 10s. His most dominating race is Kansas when he finished 2nd after leading 173 of the 267 laps. And Bowyer while having 2 top 5s and 8 top 10s has not had a dominant race yet where he had the fastest car. But one thing the team needs to do is execute with great pitstops, strategy, and keeping up with the track. Not keeping up with the track even for a brief second was the cause of undoing potential victories during the year. But Bowyer has not had that and after leaving Richard Childress Racing at the end of 2011 he could really use some momentum. And he would not waste anytime by working his way to the lead at lap and hardly give it up. The only time he would give up the lead was during pitstops to his teammate Martin Truex Jr. The first caution would come out at lap 80 for Tommy Drissi. With fuel not a worry he just needed to maintain to keep the lead. And he seemed to be doing just that but however he would be hounded by the 2004 Cup champion, Kurt Busch. And he would fight the 15 the entire way and after the controversy Kurt has been through with his anger problems, plus the way he acted and treated people including meltdowns over team radios and incidents disrespecting the media he isn't giving up easily. Especially since his meltdown with the press after an Xfinity race at Dover suspended him for Pocono he is gonna be very aggressive. Lap after lap in turn 11 Kurt is all over Bowyer's back bumper but Clint was being coached by his team to just run his line and drive off. The pressure inside these cars are intense with 5 to go and Bowyer is pulling away from Busch who reports a problem with his car. A suspension problem for the 51 has given the 15 breathing room to just hit his Mark's and run out the laps. But a caution comes out again after Kyle Busch and Paul Menard spun in turn 7 creating a green white checkered finish. So now he has to execute the perfect restart now to secure a win in the Toyota Save Mart 350 that he has dominated. But for the crew, team, driver, and fans of the 15....... it paid off! After leading 71 of 112 laps Clint Bowyer wins the race! And the pace of the MWR cars finally payed off with the speed they all showed in that race with the second most laps being lead by Truex Jr who unfortunately was spun late and Vickers finishing 4th. The morale of the whole organization was risen up with this performance that has placed Clint Bowyer in the best spot he has been all year so far in the points, 7th. And now he is 50 points above the 11th place driver Carl Edwards meaning now if Bowyer falls out of the top 10 he us in a good position to fight for a wild card. But they would prefer to use the 3 bonus points they'd get for the win in the top 10 so that is now their mission. Their mission however looked like it had taken a blow over the next 2 weeks after finishing 16th in Kentucky after being in the top 10 for over half the race after Joey Logono was tapped by Ryan Newman into Bowyer. A wreck didn't happen but Clint's night was ruined. Then Daytona happened after getting caught up in a late race wreck known as "the big one" with 7 laps to go. This put him back in 10th 31 points above the cutline for the top 10. So with officially half the season over, the chase 9 races away Bowyer and company would need to build momentum for the chase and to stay the top 10 also if possible. New Hampshire would put the energy back into the top 10 quest with a 3rd place run. Heading to the Brickyard in Indianapolis Bowyer is 9th in points 47 points above 11th. So at this point the 5 hour energy team needs to just be consistent and use the last of the summer to tune up for the chase. Nothing is guaranteed in NASCAR though, and it showed with Bowyer wrecking at lap 48. But the 15 finished 15th in the end of the race and even gained points on 11th place driver Kyle Busch. 55 separates them now. And with the next few tracks coming up the confidence was still up to stay in the top 10. And rightly so with Clint getting finishing 8th in a rain shortened Pocono, 4th at the Glen 7th in Michigan 7th at Bristol and despite a disappointing 30th place after a battery change under green cost him 3 laps after running in the top 10 after starting last. Now is purely about where will Clint be seeded to start the chase off at the regular season finale, Richmond. And he started pretty well from 4th and ran in the top 3 most of the night. But JUST after green flag pitstops his night looked to take a turn for the worse when his left rear tire was cut after contact from Juan Pablo Montoya. And it seemed very frustrating when you have a great car and get spun around which he expressed over the radio. But little did the whole team know it was a blessing in disguise. He rebound to get outside the top 10 and a gamble to pit under a caution for rain paid off when the race got back green. Be restarted 10th and he charged his way through the field. With 88 laps to go he got past a guy fighting for a wild card spot in the chase, Ryan Newman. It seemed like things would be straight forward with everyone needing to stop 1 more time. Then crew chief Brian Pattie tells his driver to save fuel to make it to the end. So he would have to back it down in an attempt to make it to the end. In an attempt to get 3 extra bonus points would actually work. Clint Bowyer wins the Federated Auto Parts 400 to get his 7th carrer victory which jumped him up to 5th in the points 6 behind Denny Hamlin! With his 2nd win of the season which is a fate he had previously gotten in 2010 it gave the MWR team momentum into the chase. They were confident in the face that they thought they can do really well in the chase, and maybe even win it all at Homestead. It started off with an ok note if you will, he was struggling with the handling on his car and ran in the teens for a lot of the race but finished 10th. This left the 15 team 15 points behind new leader Brad Keselowski. At New Hampshire he would run much better with a 4th place run. However, he was still 15 points behind new leader Jimmie Johnson. At Dover he'd run in the top 5 for most of the day but however would finish 9th due to pitting with 25 to go because he could not make the final 90 laps without stopping. This dropped him back to 4th in points 25 behind Keselowski. But that meant nothing going to Talladega, a track that Clint was actually looking forward to. But when you win the last 2 years in a row here you have a reason to be confident. Early on he ran up front but after being cycled back during pitstops he just stayed there from lap 60 to lap 170. But then he charged his way up to the lead with 6 to go. But a lap later a caution came out for Jamie McMurray wrecking in the tri-oval to set up a green white checkered finish. A chance for him to win is there and with the 3 drivers ahead of him in the points Keselowski, Johnson, and Hamlin stuck in traffic at 14th, 15th, and 25th Bowyer needs to execute these final couple of laps to get back in the mix of this championship battle.