| 2008
Spin:
Clint Bowyer will run a full Nationwide Series schedule in 2008, which can mean only one thing: he has his eye on the championship won so handily by Carl Edwards last year and teammate Kevin Harvick in 2006.
Bowyer is no stranger to the series, having run a full schedule in 2005 and ’06, when he recorded three victories and 24 top 5s. The 28-year-old Emporia, Kan., native notched two wins and 19 top 10s in only 22 events last season, finishing 12th in points despite not participating in 13 races. Bowyer is the favorite to win the newly renamed Nationwide Series in 2008 and with the support of Richard Childress Racing and a slate of 35 races ahead, expect him to fulfill the much-hyped predictions.
Clint Bowyer’s 2007 season began with his car turned upside down.
It ended with the NASCAR community turned on its ear.
Throwing the sophomore slump theory out the window, Bowyer used a conservative regular-season strategy to make the Chase, recovering from a nasty Daytona 500 crash to produce an unlikely Cinderella bid for the title. Now, the key lies with keeping that momentum intact.
No doubt, Bowyer and crew chief Gil Martin had an outstanding year in 2007, but they still weren’t able to keep pace with the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, in particular Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Like his fellow Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, Bowyer’s success in 2008 will be based in part on the ability of his team owner to field competitive cars throughout the course of the season. The RCR organization needs to continue to make strides in the overall power and performance of its cars for any of its drivers to have a real shot at the championship.
Nevertheless, Bowyer and the No. 07 team proved their ability to be consistent, and were the closest thing to a real threat to Hendrick’s domination of the Chase with a win at Loudon, second-place runs at Kansas and Charlotte and not a single DNF all year, completing 98.6% of laps attempted.
Of course, that performance came with limited distractions; expect 2008 to be different. Announcing plans to run full-time in the Nationwide Series, Bowyer looks to contend for a title that eluded him by a mere 68 points in 2005. This year may be his last chance, too, as NASCAR is expected to announce plans to prohibit drivers in the top 35 in Cup points from competing for the Nationwide title as early as 2009.
Whether running full-time in both series this season will hinder Bowyer remains to be seen. Still, one thing is certain: He has unfinished business in the Cup Series and will be out to prove that his performance in 2007 was not just a fluke.
"It was a good year. It was a successful year for us,” Bowyer said after Homestead. “We had a lot of fun and learned a lot, and it was definitely a season we can build on for the future.”
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