Top 20 Countdown: No. 17 Clint Bowyer
(Getty Images)
2009 statistics
Finish | Poles | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
15 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
The countdown
No. 20: Martin Truex Jr. | Career stats
No. 19: Brian Vickers | Career stats
No. 18: Kasey Kahne | Career stats
No. 17: Clint Bowyer | Career stats
No. 16: Revealed Jan. 15
Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2010 season. The order was determined by a survey, which asked five NASCAR journalists – Jay Busbee and Jay Hart (Yahoo! Sports); Jenna Fryer (Associated Press); Dustin Long (Landmark Newspapers); and Nate Ryan (USA Today) – to predict the final standings for the 2010 season. The countdown will conclude on Feb. 5 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver.
2009 finish: 15th
Our 2010 predictions:
• Jay Busbee: 18th
• Jay Hart: 14th
• Jenna Fryer: 15th
• Dustin Long: 16th
• Nate Ryan: 17th
2010 Outlook: Clint Bowyer was one member of the star-crossed Richard Childress Racing class of 2009. After two Chase-worthy years in which he finished third and fifth in the standings, Bowyer plummeted out of the playoff hunt last season.
But unlike teammates Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears, Bowyer had much farther to fall. Early in 2009, he turned in top-six performances at four of the first six races, including a second-place finish in Las Vegas.
After a fifth-place finish at Martinsville in March, Bowyer sat second in the standings. It was a remarkable start, if only because he was breaking in a new crew chief in Shane Wilson.
But after that weekend, Bowyer's season turned into a long, slow slide out of Chase contention. He went nine straight races without a top 10. By the time he left Pocono in June, Bowyer was sitting 16th in the standings, 103 points out of a Chase spot.
Three straight top-10 finishes in the dog days of summer put him back in Chase contention, but a wreck with Michael Waltrip in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol snuffed out the last of Bowyer's Chase chances.
Still, like Burton, Bowyer didn't just cruise into the offseason and call it a day; he slam-drafted his way through the 10-race Chase, notching five top-10s and no finish lower than 21st.
That finish should seemingly bode well for Bowyer and his RCR teammates in 2010. Then again, they had an excellent 2008 Chase, finishing fourth (Harvick), fifth (Bowyer) and sixth (Burton), yet none made the Chase the following year.
What you need to know: Bowyer established a modern-era record by finishing 83 consecutive races – a mark finally snapped when he crashed at Darlington. Between his determination to stay on the track and the growing sense that he has learned from 2009, Bowyer could very well contend for a Chase spot in 2010. That said, after the top five or so slots, it gets very crowded. Does Bowyer have what it takes to break from the pack and return to the Chase?
