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Richmond II: Clint Bowyer race report

Bowyer Rallies to a Seventh-Place Finish in Zaxby's Chevrolet at Richmond RICHMOND, Virginia (September 10, 2010) -- Clint Bowyer brought Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 Zaxby's Chevrolet to a seventh-place finish in the Virginia 529 College ...

Bowyer Rallies to a Seventh-Place Finish in Zaxby's Chevrolet at Richmond

RICHMOND, Virginia (September 10, 2010) -- Clint Bowyer brought Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 Zaxby's Chevrolet to a seventh-place finish in the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Friday night.

The Richard Childress Racing team moved up three positions, to 18th, in the NASCAR Nationwide Series owners' point standings following the 27th event of the NNS season.

The race weekend marked the first time that race teams utilized the NNS new car at Richmond, a revised chassis based off of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Car of Tomorrow designed to promote safety, cost containment for race teams and better brand identity for the NNS as a whole. Armed with a brand new Chevrolet Impala built in-house by the Zaxby's team, RCR crew members went to work with a full day test session on Thursday. Bowyer posted the fastest time during the morning portion of Thursday's test session, and was fourth overall at the conclusion of the afternoon session.

On Friday, Bowyer was fastest overall at the conclusion of a one-hour practice session in the morning, and posted the second-quickest time during pole qualifying in the afternoon.

Working with spotter Kevin Hamlin, Bowyer took the green flag in front of an estimated 52,000 race fans from the outside front row and quickly settled into second position, following race leader Kevin Harvick.

The 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion remained in second, with the exception of a brief, ten lap stint in third, for the first 111 laps despite fighting a loose condition on the No. 21 Zaxby's Chevrolet.

Crew chief Danny Stockman made the call to bring Bowyer and the yellow No. 21 down pit road for a green-flag pit stop on lap 112 and the RCR crew serviced the Chevrolet with four fresh Goodyear tires, two cans of fuel, an air pressure and chassis adjustment. Bowyer returned to the track in 15th position.

With four fresh tires on the Zaxby's Chevrolet, it did not take long for Bowyer to work his way forward in the running order. He was scored in 11th position on lap 117, ninth position on lap 121, and worked his way into the top-five by lap 131.

Bowyer was running third when the caution flag was displayed on lap 143, and Stockman made the call to make a second pit stop for four Goodyear tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.

Bowyer was fifth for the lap-148 restart, but as the field came to the green flag, he made contact with another competitor and developed a left-front tire rub, which resulted in a cut tire seven laps later, bringing out the fourth caution of the evening.

During the ensuing caution period, the RCR team made a series of two pit stops, taking on left-side tires during the first stop and right-side tires during the second stop. Thanks to quick work by the Zaxby's team, Bowyer did not lose a lap and restarted the race 19th on lap 165.

Bowyer immediately began working his way through the field, and broke into the top ten within ten laps of the restart. By lap 183, he was scored in fifth, and passed Kyle Busch for third position on lap 196.

Bowyer made his way to second position on lap 202. Unfortunately, soon thereafter he drove deep into the corner and his car slid up the track, causing him to make contact with a lapped car, bringing out the caution flag.

The field came down pit road during the ensuing caution, and Bowyer's Chevrolet was serviced with four Goodyear tires and fuel. The team also pulled out the right-front fender and the Emporia, Kans., native was able to restart 10th on lap 210.

The last 40 laps of the race remained green and Bowyer was able to gain three more positions to finish seventh.

Kevin Harvick won the 250-lap race and beat Brad Keselowski to the checkered flag by .256 seconds. Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Reed Sorenson rounded out the rest of the top-five finishers.

CLINT BOWYER:

"We had a really good run going. The guys on this Zaxby's Chevrolet did a good job putting together this new car, it was fast all weekend. We had some bad luck with the cut tire, and then, when I was driving back up through the field, I slid up and made contact with the 11 car trying to save the car from spinning. We definitely didn't need that last caution."

-source: rcr

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