It’s time to get back to racing. For Clint Bowyer, the sport’s biggest race, the Daytona 500, is as good a place as any to kick off the 2014 season. The Emporia, Kan., native has yet to win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway. He has come close in the 500 with two fourth-place finishes (2010 and 2009). He also finished fourth in the July race in 2013
A quick look at his stats, however, suggests that Bowyer may not have to wait long to visit victory lane. In 16 starts, he has 10 top-10 finishes and has completed 2,857 of 2,874 laps, a respectable feat considering the high attrition rate at restrictor plate tracks.
DESCRIBE THE LAST LAP AT DAYTONA: “You’ve got to put yourself in the right situation. You’ve got to be a student while you’re out there and it all comes down to the end. Whatever the rule package is, you can’t change the fact that whatever reason some how, some way, it’s wild at the end of those things. It’s the most amazing feeling that I’ve ever had. You’re scared. You’re excited. You’re having fun. Sometimes you’re laughing. The amount of emotion that goes through your mind on those last 10-20 laps, it’s incredible. You get out of the car and you do your interviews. You’re just such on a high. You get back to the bus and your wife/girlfriend, your brother, they get to asking you about it. ‘Man, what’d you make that move for? Holy cow that was crazy.’ It takes you a minute. You don’t even know what they’re talking about. It comes at you so fast. It doesn’t even register what happened. It’s just a reaction especially when it comes down to the end of those things. It’s amazing.”
ARE YOU READY FOR THE SEASON TO START? “At the end of the season, you’re just burned out. You’re tired of being on the road, you’re tired of getting home and changing your bag out just to leave back out that afternoon. I was ready to be home and sit on the couch for a couple days, but it’s time. We’ve put a lot of hard work into this season — a lot of pressure I guess on ourselves and myself. I didn’t finish the way I wanted to. We had a great season in 2012 and I didn’t perform to the level that I feel like I’m capable of, and more importantly our team is capable of, so really looking forward to getting that started over. A lot of things are going to be new — a lot of new challenges and anytime that we have new within our sport I think it opens up an opportunity to beat others. Everybody is just thrashing in every way to prepare themselves for the season. Our work is done — we’re ready to go.”
MWR PR
