On the outside looking in at the Chase, Clint Bowyer says desperation has set in
Clint Bowyer needs to win at Richmond Saturday night to make the Chase.
OK, that isn't his only way of getting in the Chase, but it's certainly the simplest. If Bowyer is going to get into the Chase on points, he needs to have a driver who's already won in the Sprint Cup Series win on Saturday night and beat Greg Biffle by 24 points. Oh, and hope Kyle Larson doesn't finish ahead of him.
Bowyer was ready with the clichés when asked about his win-and-in scenario. But he's happy he's at Richmond.
"Yes, desperation has definitely settled in," Bowyer said. "It doesn't matter though – it is what it is. You have to go out there and race as hard as you can. There's nothing you can do. You can go out and give it our all – it's going to take a team effort. The good news is our hot rod is pretty fast. When we started here in practice I was out of control and the car was way off, and I was thinking that we're not even going to have a fighting chance at this. And there was a little bit of new life after first practice and then what I saw in qualifying trim – we've struggled in qualifying trim all season long and just haven't had the speed and certainly this is the first time in a long time that we've had some good speed out of the race car. Pretty optimistic about running well tomorrow night."
"You never know if you're going to have a shot at winning the race so deep into that race; the first 15 or 20 laps you kind of got an idea and adjust on your race car and go from there. Right now telling you do I have a shot at winning this thing or what, I can tell you I've won it twice. If there was ever a track that I had a lot of confidence going to that I could race my way in it would be this one."
If you're thinking the "Bowyer is optimistic about Richmond" theme is familiar, you're right. He talked about how good Richmond has been to him when he was there in April. That was his first trip back to Richmond since this time last year, when Bowyer was in the midst of a race manipulation effort to get Martin Truex Jr. into the Chase.
Going into Saturday, he's got legitimate reason to be optimistic. He has nine top 10 finishes at the 0.75-mile tri-oval. And a win would certainly be a brighter recent memory than last year's spin is. He could be answering questions in Chicago about being in the Chase this year instead of ultimately helping getting a teammate kicked out of it last year.
"Last year? You never want to create a storm in any sport or for anybody," Bowyer said. "Any of your peers, your friends, your family, anybody. Hell, for yourself. Do you think I wanted to be in the middle of all of that mess? I wanted to go to Chicago and enjoy Chicago. It's a pretty fun city and instead I had to answer your questions again."
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
