BOWYER FLOURISHES AS OTHERS FAULTER

Race/Date: Diamond Hill Plywood 200 – May 9, 2008 - Location: Darlington Raceway – Darlington, S.C. - Start Position: Second - Finish Position: Second
Points Position: First – Extended Points Lead

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 2 BB&T Chevy Monte Carlo SS, turned in a solid second-place finish in Friday night’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at historic Darlington Raceway.

At the same time, Bowyer extended his points lead after his closest two competitors, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, fell out of the race in separate incidents proving the newly-repaved 1.366-mile race track is still “Too Tough Too Tame.”

Bowyer came into the race leading by one and left with a 112-point advantage over Busch and a 150-point lead on Edwards.

The six-time Nationwide Series winner started the event from the outside pole but fought a tight-handling condition during the first half of the event. After falling as far back as 11th, Bowyer’s crew chief Dan Deeringhoff made a major air pressure adjustment to the BB&T Chevy’s right-front tire during the evening’s second pit stop.

The call remedied the tight condition and the burgundy and gold No. 2 machine headed back to the front.

By lap 94, Bowyer was eighth, sixth on lap 97 and back inside the top five 25 laps from the scheduled 147-lap distance.

Over the closing 20 circuits, patience and quick reflexes paid off with Bowyer missing three incidents that twice brought out the red flag.

As the field was coming up to speed during the night’s second-to-last restart on lap 144, Mark Martin’s No. 5 Chevy ran out of gas and a chain-reaction, multi-car incident ensued. Bowyer just missed the carnage and moved into second when the field was red flagged three laps shy of the checkers.

The 28-year-old driver held on to second during the green-white-checkered flag finish to record the team’s fifth top-five and ninth top-10 finish of the 2008 season.

Tony Stewart won the race, Bowyer was second and David Reutimann finished third. Todd Bodine was fourth with Steve Wallace rounding out the top five.

Bowyer and the BB&T racing team will test at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Tuesday of this week before enjoying a well-deserved weekend off. The NASCAR Nationwide Series returns to the track in two weeks for the traditional Memorial Day weekend Nationwide and Sprint Cup series’ doubleheader in Charlotte.

Live coverage of the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 from Lowe’s Motor Speedway will take the green flag Saturday, May 24 at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be televised live on ESPN2 and broadcast from coast to coast on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 13th race on the 2008 schedule will be televised live on SPEED the same day at 3:30 p.m. EDT. PRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast qualifying updates live.

• CLINT BOWYER QUOTES

“It was a good night for the BB&T Chevrolet. We’re in the Nationwide Series to win a championship and that’s how you win a championship – by capitalizing on other people’s mistakes. Carl (Edwards) and Kyle (Busch) had problems and we were able to get our car going a little better about halfway through the race and run second. We got lucky there at the end. When the 5 car (Mark Martin) ran out of gas, we just missed the wreck and that put us in position to finish second. Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.”