Sunday, May 04, 2008
Chevy owner Richard Childress Is Clearly General Motors’ Top Dog in NASCAR this spring
Dale Earnhardt Jr. spinning after colliding with Kyle Busch in a duel for the win at Richmond
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
By Mike Mulhern
RICHMOND, Va.
Clint Bowyer and crew chief Gil Martin were almost defiant in victory here Saturday, acknowledging Denny Hamlin’s prowess, and bad luck, but pointing to their own dogged determination to get close enough to the front of the pack to be ready to pounce if things ever got too hot.
Things did, and Bowyer did, and now he’s got his first tour win of the season, moving up to fourth in the Sprint Cup standings heading this week to Darlington, S.C.
Bowyer has given car owner Richard Childress a three-pronged attack on the stock car trail over the past three years, along with teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.
Childress, who has not only turned around his legendary operation over the past 18 months but who now has his three drivers top-five in the standings, has seen enough wild ones like this – and been right in the middle of so many of them himself – that he was unfazed by the wild finish and the Kyle Busch-Dale Earnhardt Jr. controversy.
Clint Bowyer’s guys cheering at Saturday night’s Richmond finish
(Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)
“Clint won by ‘being there,’” Childress said simply. “It’s when you have good preparation—That means opportunity. And Clint was prepared and the opportunity was there.
“Watching Clint drive that car, a lot of it comes from his dirt-track experience.
“And it was just great racing—Kyle and Dale Jr. and these guys are putting on a show, and people shouldn’t be upset, because that’s what they pay their money for—to see a great race.”
Clint Bowyer celebrates winning Richmond, in a wild, crashing finish
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
This time Bowyer had to charge up from 31st, after a poor qualifying effort: “I really messed up,” he said. But he was top-10 just 75 miles into the event, and top-five just before halfway.
“The fastest car does not always win, and that was the case. But we were fast all night….you’ve got to be there for the ‘taking,’ and we were close enough to do just that.
“It was pretty wild. It was bound to happen. I was watching it, and Richard was on the radio saying ‘It’s going to happen,’ and sure enough it did.
“They were putting on a show. They were racing hard. That’s what racing at Richmond is all about, in my opinion.”
Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin were at the head of the Richmond parade at the start, but Hamlin didn’t make it to the finish
(Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Martin, one of the more unsung crew chiefs in the sport, despite last fall’s unexpected charge down the championship stretch, leading the only team that could challenge Hendrick’s Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon for the title, made it clear this win was no fluke: “A lot of people may say we backed into the win…but we started 31st and drove our way up to 17th or 16th on the first stop. We were coming all along. We just needed track position. And once we got up in clean air, we could run with them.
“As far as the evolution of this team, I can’t be more proud of this guy and how far he’s come,” Martin said of Bowyer. “This was a perfect example: At the start of the race we didn’t have an ideal pit situation. He did a great job getting into the pit box and coming off pit road. Those are the little things people don’t see during the race, about how far he’s come. You see what he’s doing on the track, but it’s the little things that make up the time, and he’s done that.”
And Bowyer himself realizes he’s been an unexpectedly hot addition to the Sprint Cup tour: “Last year we were the odd-man out but getting into the chase. We won that race (at Loudon, first of the 10-race playoffs), and it just did so much for momentum and confidence.
“It doesn’t matter what you do in life, if you have a little confidence and momentum on your side, the sky’s the limit.”
Clint Bowyer beating Kyle Busch to the finish line...and don’t those walls look well used…
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
So Earnhardt remains winless this season, and so does teammate Jeff Gordon, who struggled home ninth. Teammate Jimmie Johnson, who won both 400s here last year was not a factor this time, and a huge mid-race crash cost him dearly – Johnson finished 30th, 10 laps down.
Gordon? “I thought we were about an eighth or ninth-place car,” he said. “To start 43rd, go a lap down and have to get our lap back, I’m really proud of this team.
“That was a great battle, a great fight. It showed what we’re made of. We didn’t make a lot of gains in the points (he moved from 14th to 13th in the standings), but we didn’t lose anything.”
Most drivers complained of ill-handling cars, and Gordon did too: “Whew! I had my hands full.
“You just try to match yourself against the competition. A lot of guys were struggling with handling.”
Jeff Gordon: Started last, finished ninth...still winless
(Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)
What is baffling, to outsiders at least, is that Johnson and Gordon were quite strong in this new winged stock car at many of these tracks last year, much stronger than the competition, but this year the two have struggled.
“I know why it’s happening,” Gordon said. “It’s happening because Goodyear is changing tires on us a little bit. We’ve had to adjust to that.
“And the competition has gotten better.
“We’re in the position that we have to go to work, and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been testing a lot these last couple of weeks.”
And that is rather surprising for the Hendrick men themselves to do so much testing.
One of Saturday night’s big moments: Denny Hamlin, with a right-front going down and only 20 laps left, gets sandwiched by Kyle Busch (inside) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
One of the stranger stories this spring has been Tony Stewart, in several respects. Saturday night he was never really a threat in the Richmond 400, though teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were among the strongest all night. However Stewart rallied to finish a strong fourth, despite a bad alternator that made life tough inside the car.
“I don’t know whether we lost an alternator belt or just broke an alternator or what, but I had to run the whole last half of the race with almost no fans, just front and rear brake blowers,” Stewart said. “The last 100 laps we ran with no fans at all, not even brake fans. To run the last 100 laps like that, I think we did pretty well.”
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Denny Hamlin may have used up too much luck in Friday night’s Richmond win, because
his luck ran out late in Saturday night’s 400
(Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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