Home Featured Stories Bowyer’s Season After 10 Races

Bowyer’s Season After 10 Races

FONTANA, Calif. - MARCH 26: Clint Bowyer, driver of the #14 Rush Truck Centers Ford, and Daniel Suarez, driver of the #19 Subway Toyota, race during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 26, 2017 in Fontana, California. Photo: Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

Clint Bowyer last won a race nearly five years ago and his career slowly started to dip until he hit rock bottom last season. Now he’s back to posting competitive numbers and looks to end his long winless drought.

Bowyer entered the 2017 season coming off the worst season of his career and as the driver taking over the car formerly occupied by Tony Stewart. Despite his lackluster 2016 campaign, expectations were much higher for the driver who hadn’t won a race since October 13, 2012, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

His season started with a 32nd-place finish after being caught up in a wreck near the start of the final stage of the Daytona 500. He followed that performance up a week later with an 11th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

He earned his first top-10 finish of the season with a 10th-place run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the highlight of a rotten race for Stewart-Haas Racing. Bowyer earned his first top-five since Bristol in August of 2015 with a third at Auto Club Speedway.

He matched his top-10 total from 2016 with a seventh at Martinsville Speedway, the sixth race of the season. His second-place effort at Bristol Motor Speedway was his first runner-up finish since Homestead of 2012.

Finishes of 15th at Richmond International Raceway and 14th at Talladega Superspeedway, including 10 laps led (233.33 percent more than his 2016 total of three), puts him ninth in the points entering Kansas Speedway.

Statistically, Bowyer has already bested his totals from 2016 and is on track to post season totals comparable to his career high of 2012 and 2013. But there’s still the 159-race winless drought that he admits does gnaw at him, but says he doesn’t think about it.

“It is but, to be honest with you, you don’t even think about that,” Bowyer said. “You think about winning. I never think about how long it has been. I think about how you are going to get it done. You have that thought process through the week as you are going through competition meetings starting Monday and your conversations with the crew chief all week long. The biggest thing is you are lined back up with an organization that is capable of doing that. That is item number one. You are with a manufacturer that is capable of doing that and is winning races and competing at the highest level. Each and every week you go to the race track knowing you have a chance to win the race. All the past that has happened is the furthest thing from my mind because you are back to sitting in equipment capable of winning these races and competing at the highest level.”

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Tucker White
I've followed NASCAR for well over 20 years of my life, both as a fan and now as a member of the media. As of 2024, I'm on my ninth season as a traveling NASCAR beat writer. For all its flaws and dumb moments, NASCAR at its best produces some of the best action you'll ever see in the sport of auto racing. Case in point: Kyle Larson's threading the needle pass at Darlington Raceway on May 9, 2021. On used-up tires, racing on a worn surface and an aero package that put his car on the razor's edge of control, Larson demonstrated why he's a generational talent. Those are the stories I want to capture and break down. In addition to NASCAR, I also follow IndyCar and Formula 1. As a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, I'm a diehard Tennessee Volunteers fan (especially in regards to Tennessee football). If covering NASCAR doesn't kill me, down the road, watching Tennessee football will. I'm also a diehard fan of the Atlanta Braves, and I lived long enough to see them win a World Series for the first time since 1995 (when I was just a year old). I've also sworn my fan allegiance to the Nashville Predators, though that's not paid out as much as the Braves. Furthermore, as a massive sports dork, I follow the NFL on a weekly basis. Though it's more out of an obligation than genuine passion (for sports dorks, following the NFL is basically an unwritten rule). Outside of sports, I'm a major cinema buff and a weeb. My favorite film is "Blazing Saddles" and my favorite anime is "Black Lagoon."

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