Clint Bowery, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota – Duel at Daytona Preview

5-hour ENERGY Toyota driver Clint Bowyer will get his first taste of drafting in race conditions at Daytona during Wednesday’s two practice sessions and in the second 150-mile Duel on Thursday. The two Duel races set the 43-car field for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Despite finishing second in the 2012 points, the Michael Waltrip Racing driver did not qualifying for last Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited because he didn’t win a pole during the season. Bowyer spent Saturday watching the dirt late model teams he owns race in Tampa. He also watched the Unlimited on television to learn what he could about NASCAR’s new Gen-6 cars on the Daytona high-banks.

Bowyer tweeted:

“I have officially reset my 2013 goals … win a damn pole, this sucks!!!”

QUOTES

ON WATCHING THE SPRINT UNLIMITED: “I didn’t enjoy watching the Sprint Unlimited on TV. I know that I didn’t win a pole and I didn’t earn my spot in that race, but watching everyone else strap in and go for broke when you’re watching on TV is not my idea of a good time. I am going to have to fix that for next year and make sure we get our chance to race. When cars are going around Daytona – I want to be in one of those cars.”

ON DUEL No. 2: “We qualified about how I expected we would based on our practice times, so I’m good with that. It put us in a pretty good position. We are racing in the second duel with our teammate Mark Martin and I think we’ll do just fine. We’ll run our race, learn as much as we can and get a good starting spot for the Daytona 500.”

MWR PR