NASCAR notebook: Bowyer disappointed despite late rally
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[July 02, 2018]
Without doubt, Clint Bowyer will
look at Sunday's Overton's 400 at Chicagoland Speedway as a race
that got away.
Bowyer had driven from his fifth-place starting position to the
front of the field before the first round of green-flag pit stops.
But when he brought his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to pit road
on Lap 39 of 267 and gave up the lead, Bowyer was too fast on exit.
That meant a pass-through penalty, and on his next trip down pit
road, Bowyer sped again. The second infraction requires a
stop-and-go, but Bowyer failed to stop on his third pass down pit
road. So Bowyer returned to pit road for a fourth time, stopped in
his pit stall and continued.
By then he was more than two laps down to the leader, but Bowyer
fought back. Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz kept him on the track during
a pit stop cycle in Stage 2 and was rewarded with a caution for
debris in Turn 2.
That got Bowyer back on the lead circuit as the highest scored
lapped car, and from there the two-time 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR
Cup Series winner salvaged a fifth-place result.
Bowyer, however, was far from satisfied.
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"Yeah, we were too fast (on pit road)," Bowyer said to reporters
after the race. "The guys work very hard on making sure that they
are pushing the envelope, which you have to do in this world and
against this competition. You have to push everything. Certainly,
pit road is a big part of that. You're splitting hairs out there on
the race track down to the tenths of a second, and you can gain
seconds on pit road.
"Obviously, our pit road speed was just a little too fast. We
practiced it yesterday, and the guys even made some adjustments, but
that tight section down there was just too fast. The first time you
second-guess yourself. You come down the second time, and you're
cautious and speed again, so now you know you've got a problem. Then
it was just confusion on my part. I wasn't listening (to the
stop-and-go instructions) and made a mistake and cost us a third
time down.
"We got good at pitting today, unfortunately. The capability is
there to run with these three guys (Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and
Martin Truex Jr.). Our race team is young and making some mistakes,
but we have time to gain on those and build on those. You hate to
give away those stage points. I think we could have won both those
stages and maybe be in contention for a win... We have a lot of good
mojo on this 14 car, we just have to put it all together to get
another win."
Tough ending
For the first half of Sunday's Overton's 400 at Chicagoland
Speedway, Aric Almirola looked every bit like a potential race
winner.
The driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Fusion took the
lead near the end of the first 80-lap stage and held on for the
stage win, the first of his career. On Laps 87 and 88, Almirola
swapped the lead with Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick,
and he held it through a cycle of green-flag pit stops late in the
stage.
But a pit stop under caution on Lap 129 proved Almirola's undoing.
After passing Ryan Blaney for the top spot on Lap 135, Almirola
returned to pit road on Lap 142 when the vibration from a loose
wheel got progressively worse.
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NASCAR Cup
Series driver Clint Bowyer (14) during practice for the Overton's
400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY
Sports
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Mar/14/images/ads/current/tires250x300.gif)
The unplanned pit stop dropped Almirola to 26th, one lap down, and
though he regained the lead lap as the beneficiary under caution at
the end of Stage 2, a second loose wheel on Lap 220 doomed Almirola
to a 25th-place finish.
"Our car was super-fast, especially out in clean air," Almirola
said. "It was incredibly fast. We just have to execute. We have to
put a whole race together. That's the difference between being good
and being great. We are capable of winning. We showed it today. We
have speed. We're bringing incredible race cars to the race track
and we just have to put a whole day together.
"We have to be flawless on pit road, and I have to do my part, too.
Today we just had two loose wheels on two separate instances, and
you can't have that, especially in races like this that go green
forever. I'm really frustrated, but the good news is that our cars
are fast. We can build on that. We're going to win a race. I
guarantee you we are going to win a race. We have to be perfect to
do it, though."
Strong finish
Though Erik Jones was hardly a constant presence at the front of the
field in Sunday's Overton's 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, he was
there when it counted.
With teammate Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson trading blows in a dramatic
final lap, Jones rolled across the finish line in a relatively quiet
sixth place and solidified his 14th-place position in the Monster
Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings.
The top-10 result was Jones' seventh in 17 races this season and his
second straight, following a seventh-place run at Sonoma.
"Yeah, I think overall the last two weeks have been really good to
us," Jones said. "Sonoma was a big challenge, and I thought today
was going to be a big challenge, with the overall grip level being
as low as it was, the track being as hot and slick as it was.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Jul/02/images/ads/current/peasleymemorials_lda100213.png)
"We did a good job making good adjustments. Overall, we did what
needed to do to get a good run and it turned out into a solid
top-10... I felt good. But definitely slick and definitely not my
kind of race, but we got a good race out of it."
--By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level
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