SO CLOSE
CORNELIUS, N.C. — The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second race of the season. The race comes on the heels of an exciting end to the series’ biggest race, the Daytona 500.
It was a race that saw Clint Bowyer challenging for the win on the last lap with competitors three wide. The driver of the No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota settled for a seventh-place finish, but showed in the process that his team is a contender early in the season.
The team shifts its focus to Atlanta and the 1.54-mile quad-oval which is known for producing fast speeds with white-knuckle qualifying sessions. Bowyer has been close to victory at Atlanta before, most notably 2013, when he led 48 laps. Being that good again could mean victory this time.
How would you assess your start to the season?
“That is just the start to the season we needed. Bummed we weren’t able to pull out the win for this whole 5-hour ENERGY team but we were in the mix at the end and that’s all you can ask for. You can feel the excitement at the shop and it’s carried over to the track. We had a few rough days at Daytona but the fact that we were able to overcome those and do what we need to do when it matters shows a lot about where we are as a team.”
What’s your outlook going to Atlanta?
“Well we need to keep the momentum from Daytona going, first of all. I like Atlanta. We nearly had the thing won a few years ago and were in decent shape there last year. Both times we had a failure so I’m thinking we’ve got that out of our system. I’ll tell you it’s a good thing we wear gloves because it’s going to be cold. But they play football in cold weather, why not race in it?”
· Five top-10 finishes in 14 starts
· Completed 4,341 of 4,587 laps (94.6%) and led 114 laps
· Two DNF’s (did not finish) – Sept. 2014 and Sept. 2011
· Average start 16.1 and average finish 21.1
