CONCORD, N.C. — One of these days, Clint Bowyer might have enough gas in his tank to do a celebratory burnout.
Until then, he’s just fine walking to victory lane.
Bowyer and crew chief Brian Pattie stretched a final tank of fuel to the finish for a win in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night that pushed the Michael Waltrip Racing team back into the championship picture. It was its third win of the season, and Bowyer has run out of gas after taking the checkered flag all three times.
“It’s fun to walk to victory lane, that’s the best walk you could ever have,” he said after Saturday night’s win. “I think that’s my new trademark. I’ll walk home if it means victory lane.”
Bowyer didn’t expect to be in this position at this time last year, when talks on a contract extension broke down with Richard Childress Racing.
Neither did Pattie, who was stuck at home unable to work because he had been fired as Juan Pablo Montoya’s crew chief but was still under contract to the race team.
And team owner Waltrip, he wanted them both because they’d be an upgrade to his organization and allow him to expand to a third team. But he wasn’t sure either would even consider joining MWR.
Somehow, it all came together and clicked faster than anyone expected. The cars were fast, the chemistry was good and they were in victory lane for the first time in June on the road course at Sonoma. They did it again on the short track at Richmond to end the regular season.
Saturday night’s victory came on the 1.5-mile intermediate Charlotte track and marked that halfway point of the 10-race Chase. It pushed Bowyer up one spot in the Chase standings to fourth, 28 points behind leader Brad Keselowski as the Sprint Cup Series shifts to Kansas — Bowyer’s home track.
“That’s probably the biggest thing, to come off this win, going into your hometown,” Bowyer said. “It’s just so important to be able to roll in on a positive note. And to be able to win there some day, we’ve gotten close, if we could possibly pull this off again in Kansas — it would be, that’s my, do you dare say, Daytona 500? But it truly is. That’s the biggest race you can possibly win, in front of your hometown.”
It won’t be easy for Bowyer to overcome this deficit and win the championship. Standing in front of him is Keselowski, a two-time winner in the Chase this year, five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin, who nearly won the 2010 title but fumbled it away to Johnson in the finale.
In 2009, when Pattie led Montoya into the Chase, the crew chief played a game of math to make a run at the title. He chased points and finishes and played it safe, and while it worked for the best season in Montoya’s NASCAR career, it wasn’t enough to win the title.
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