Clint Bowyer heads to Michigan with points picture in mind

CORNELIUS, N.C. – No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota driver Clint Bowyer heads to Michigan International Speedway for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race with a 65 point cushion compared to 11th place with four races remaining before the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Clint Bowyer

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

The 5-hour ENERGY driver and team know winning races is the primary goal every weekend, and with only a handful of races remaining in NASCAR’s regular season, the Championship picture is at the front of everyone’s mind. The goal is to minimize risk so you don’t jeopardize a point lead, while still trying to win races for when the field is set after Richmond.

ON POINTS POSITION: “I really haven’t been looking at it too much. I know that we are in pretty good shape with only a couple races to go. We have a goal as a team to finish in the single digits each week–if we do that I don’t think we’ll have any problems. And we’ve been able to do that the last couple weeks. Three of the last four weeks we’ve been in the top-10 and the fourth we were in the top-15, so as long as we keep doing that and staying consistent we are going to be just fine. We just can’t have any major catastrophes in the next couple weeks.”

ON MWR IN 2012: “It’s been a good year so far. We’ve come a long way in a short time. Brian Pattie has assembled a great group of guys and we’ve come together as a team far faster then I think anyone really anticipated. But it’s not really just the No. 15 5-hour ENERGY team that is having a great year, but look at what the No. 56 team and Martin Truex Jr. have done. Those guys have really stepped up their game and took it to another level this year. The No. 55 team, with all the different drivers who have been in that car this year, have also done an amazing job. To say I had some concerns when I signed here last year would be very fair to say, but they have gone past all expectations in a very short period of time. This team has a lot of resources in terms of its people, engineering support and the help we get from Toyota and Toyota Racing Development. When I was looking around last year I definitely had my concerns, but they had all the parts and pieces in place to do good things, and those things have really come together.”

ON MICHIGAN TIRE TEST: “Our last Goodyear test with the 5-hour ENERGY team at Michigan was really helpful. Goodyear brought a tire that wasn’t as fast as the original tire from the first race, but was somewhere right in-between what we raced and what we started with. I think it was a pretty good compromise as far as the speeds and the handling. I give Goodyear a lot of credit for going back to Michigan to make sure that we have a good tire for this race.

“And from our standpoint the extra test time definitely helps. We learned some things that we took with us to Pocono and found a lot of speed for this trip back to Michigan. All of the MWR cars were very fast and very good. I’ve been looking forward to coming back to Michigan for a couple weeks. I think we found some things that are going to make us very competitive. And I just had my best finish ever at Michigan in our last visit which never hurts. Hopefully we can make it just a little bit better this time around.”

ON RACING IN MICHIGAN: “This race has always been important to the manufacturers, and Toyota takes this race pretty seriously since we are racing in the backyard of the Big Three. Now with 5-hour ENERGY as my sponsor, this is their backyard too, and I want to show them that they made the right decision in sponsoring this team. We want to perform well for them. We are in great shape right now as far as how the first season has gone, but it would be great to have a strong showing at their home track.”

Source: Michael Waltrip Racing