High Roller
CORNELIUS, N.C. — The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race marks the first of three races during a “west coast swing” for the circuit.
Clint Bowyer brings his No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry to the 1.5-mile oval sitting 10th in the point standings, 17 points out of fifth.
That standing was helped by crew chief Brian Pattie and team’s quick work Sunday after Bowyer experienced trouble under the hood with under 35 laps to go. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver, who had been running at the front all day, attempted to nurse his machine home and was caught in a late-race wreck. Instead of taking their Toyota to the garage, Pattie called him to pit road where the crew feverishly worked to get him back on track, allowing him to gain valuable positions.
The run was preceded the week before by a nail-biting last lap attempt to pass eventual winner Joey Logano in the Daytona 500. Bowyer’s seventh-place finish in the season opener has the team on a roll heading into Las Vegas. And any driver would love to get out of Vegas as the high roller of the weekend.
Do you enjoy going to Las Vegas?
“Who wouldn’t? And I don’t just mean the track. There’s so much to do there. If you aren’t a gambler, there’s good restaurants and good shows and concerts to go to. I think it’s a great place to catch a race if you are a fan.”
You are 10th in points. Talk about your performance so far in these first two races.
“Well I’m proud of the guys. We’ve had good race cars in each of these first two races. Heck, we were second at one point on the last lap of the Daytona 500. And last weekend, Brian (Pattie) brought me another great car. I’m most proud of the fact that we worked on the car throughout the race and got it better. That’s a real good sign to me that we are heading in the right direction. We just have to keep after it and I know this 5-hour ENERGY team will be on it again this weekend.”
· One top-five and three top-10 finishes in nine starts
· Completed 2,391 of 2,424 laps (98.6%) and led 17 laps
· No DNF (did not finish)
· Average start 16.1 and average finish 17.8
