Following a 19th-place finish in the season ending standings to go with zero wins, five top-fives and 15 top-10s, Clint Bowyer will no doubt be looking to get back to victory lane in 2015.
Coming off of a winless season in 2013, everybody expected the Kansas native to bounce back from the slew of Chase controversy that was stirred up by a simple spin at Richmond international Raceway with a solid season, possibly with a return to victory lane. Though perhaps that controversy created more problems internally in the organization with disbelief and such than originally recognized, as Bowyer would not post a top-10 in 2014 until the sixth race of the year at Martinsville Speedway, finishing ninth. That, or perhaps luck wasn’t in his cards as the year started off with an engine failure in the Daytona 500 and poor performance across the board.
Once Michael Waltrip Racing got a couple of good runs under their belt, there was possible hope that things would in fact turn around in style for Bowyer. Though, that was never the case. Bowyer was delivered a season full of inconsistency with performance lacking some weeks, bad luck swatting at other weeks, and some good runs to keep whatever morale that was there. In the end, it was certainly not the year that he wanted in finishing 19th in points. More importantly, it marked the second straight year without a victory.
Bowyer has proven that he can get it done with Brian Pattie, as evidenced by his 2012 season that featured three wins, 10 top-fives and 23 top-10s. The question remains whether MWR can get it done. They certainly didn’t last year with Brian Vickers finishing 23rd in points, boasting no wins and only three top-fives. With no known changes over the off-season and Vickers set to miss the first part of the year due to heart surgery, the status of MWR looks skeptical heading into the year.
Bowyer fans can only hope that his No. 15 5-Hour Energy team went to work during the off-season, or else it may be another year full of disappointment.
