Luck of the Irish
CORNELIUS, N. C. – The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to the Irish Hills surrounding Michigan International Speedway this weekend and Clint Bowyer certainly hopes it’s a lucky place for him.
The driver of the No.15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota is currently in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup after last weekend’s sixth-place finish at Watkins Glen. He is 16th in the 16-person field, one point out of 15th and 23 points out of 12th. With four races left before the Chase field is set, Bowyer said “a win is what we are shooting for but we have to have good finishes too.”
Good finishes are something that the Michael Waltrip Racing driver has had recently at Michigan. He finished in the top 10 in the last nine races he has run at the 2-mile oval. The team is also on a momentum swing with seven top-10 finishes in the last 10 races.
He will look to improve on that total this weekend at Michigan where a little luck in the Irish Hills can only help his chances of securing his spot in the Chase.
What does your team have to do to keep themselves in the Chase?
“We can do this. We are right there and are doing the right things at the right time. We definitely have a little momentum. Last weekend (at Watkins Glen) was exactly what we needed to do. We executed on pit road and our strategy played out. These next few tracks are good ones for me– Bristol, Darlington and Richmond. We had a good run at Michigan earlier in the year so we have some notes to go on. It’s a different package then before but we were able to get a handle on it at Indy and had a good run so I expect we will be able to do it again this weekend.”
Billy Scott, crew chief: What do you have to do these next few races to stay in the Chase?
“We have momentum on our side right now. We would love to some how grab a win in the next four races but know we can’t have a big gamble back fire on us. We can’t give up too many points to the other teams on the bubble. We have been getting better each week and our Toyotas have been fast the last few months. Our 5-hour ENERGY Toyota was pretty good at Indy and I expect the same this weekend. We just need to continue to click off top 10’s and score as many points as we can each week. If we do that I believe everything else will take care of itself.”
NO. 15 CREW ROSTER
Billy Scott
Crew Chief
Terry Spalding
Front Tire Changer
Allen Steele
Front Tire Carrier
Lee Cunningham
Rear Tire Changer
P.J. Briody
Rear Tire Carrier
Brian Chase
Jack Man
Evan Marchal
Gas Man
J.D. Frey
Car Chief
Brett Griffin
Spotter
Dax Gerringer
Race Engineer
Joe Bisson
Race Engineer
Adam Cooke
Shock Specialist
Travis Stock
Rear Mechanic
Chris Sherwood
Front Mechanic
Kyle Anderson
Interior Mechanic
James Davis
Tire Specialist
Gregg Huls
Engine Tuner
Ray Erwin
Truck Driver
Jeff Shano
Truck Driver
MICHIGAN STATS
· One top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 19 starts
· Completed 3,628 of 3,677 laps (98.7%) and led 27 laps
· Average start 19.0 and average finish 14.3
