Late Restart Keeps Bowyer from Reaching Brickyard Glory

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer came within three laps of winning the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard. However, a late race restart left the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver spinning his tires.

On the final restart at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Bowyer restarted on the outside of Denny Hamlin in the No. 14 Mobil 1 / Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion. However, while Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Possibilities Toyota Camry surged forward, Bowyer struggled. His Ford bogged down, stacking up the outside lane as Hamlin, eventual race winner Brad Keselowski, and Erik Jones snuck by. In three laps, Bowyer dropped from having a chance to win The Brickyard to finishing fifth.

After the final round of green flag pit stops, Bowyer was running Hamlin down. The duo pitted within a lap of each other, the latter first. The two drivers had broken away from the rest of the field, left seemingly to decide the race amongst themselves. As Hamlin’s car began to fade on the long run, Bowyer’s came to life. However, a late debris caution, and a vicious wreck between Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt, ultimately gave Keselowski the chance to jump both Bowyer and Hamlin.

“You’ve got to use good runs like that for a confidence-booster for the Playoffs,” Bowyer said. “It was a good run for us. Man, it’s a game of luck. There wasn’t really any strategy. You can’t strategize for cautions that you don’t know are gonna exist.

“I felt like we were definitely faster than the 11, but when he beat us out of the pits there, that position nobody passed anybody for the lead and unless they were a huge advantage on tires, and then all of a sudden the cautions come out and hand the 2 the win. That’s what’s frustrating, but that’s the nature of the beast here.”

The fifth-place finish is the seventh top-five for Bowyer this season. After the reseeding for the Playoffs, he jumps from eighth to fifth on the Playoff Grid. Bowyer sits 35-points behind points leaders Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. He is also 12-points ahead of the cutoff for the Round of 12, currently held by Hamlin.

Now Bowyer will look to secure his position in the Playoffs as the series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the South Point 400.