Clint Bowyer - No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 – May 24, 2008
Venue: Lowe’s Motor Speedway – Concord, N.C.

• NOTES:

* This Week’s BB&T Chevrolet at Lowe’s Motor Speedway … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 068 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series stable. This is a brand new BB&T Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS. 

* Home Field Advantage … BB&T, Bowyer’s primary sponsor is headquartered in nearby Winston-Salem, N.C., approximately 60 miles north of Lowe’s Motor Speedway. BB&T Corporation is a fast growing, highly profitable financial holding company. Its bank subsidiaries operate more than 1,500 financial centers in the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Indiana and Washington, D.C. Building on a tradition of excellence in community banking that stretches back to 1872, BB&T continues to offer its clients a complete range of financial services including banking, lending, insurance, trust, wealth management and capital markets solutions. BB&T’s operating strategy distinguishes it from other financial holding companies. BB&T’s banking subsidiaries are organized as a group of community banks, each with a regional president, which allows decisions to be made locally, close to the client. This also makes BB&T’s client service more responsive, reliable and empathetic. 

* A Look at Lowe’s … In seven Nationwide Series starts at LMS, Bowyer has earned one top-five and four top-10 finishes. At the same time, the Emporia, Kan., driver has three finishes of 32nd or worse. He has a 13.7 starting average and an 18.4 finishing average. He has completed 1,299 of the 1,402 (92.65 percent) total laps run over those seven starts and has earned just shy of $175,000. Last fall at LMS, Bowyer was protecting the lead on lap 139 when his No. 2 Chevy got away from him exiting turn four. Still, he managed to gouge his way back from deep in the field to log a respectable eighth-place finish. 

* Darlington Rewind … Two weeks ago at Darlington Raceway, Bowyer started on the outside pole, led once for 13 laps and went on to record a runner-up finish. It was the BB&T racing team’s fifth top-five and ninth top-10 finish of 2008. At the same time, Bowyer extended his points lead after his two closest competitors, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, fell out of the race in separate incidents. Bowyer leads Busch by 112 points and Edwards by 150. * Bowyer in the Loop …

o Average Running Position … According to NASCAR’s Loop Data Statistics, Bowyer leads the Average Running Position category with an 8.813 ARP. The ARP is derived from taking the sum of a driver’s position on each lap and dividing it by the number of laps run in each race.

o Laps in the Top 15 … Meanwhile, the six-time NNS winner has spent 1,808 of the 2,067 laps completed this season (87.5 percent) running in the top 15.

o Driver Rating … Bowyer also enjoys a 107.8 Driver Rating – second only to Busch (108.9). The Driver Rating is a formula that combines the following categories: wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The Driver Rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.

o Laps Led … Bowyer has led 213 laps in Nationwide Series competition this season and trails only Busch and two-time Sprint Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart in that category.

* RCR Nationwide Cars in the Queen City … In 36 Nationwide Series starts at LMS, RCR boasts one win, seven top-five and 17 top-10 finishes with eight different drivers including Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jeff Green, Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday Jr., Jay Sauter, Mike Skinner and Scott Wimmer. * Meet the Press … Bowyer will meet with the gathered press outside the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s transporter inside the Sprint Cup Series garage area Thursday, May 22 at 4:40 p.m.

* Memorial Day Weekend Double Header … Following his duties behind the wheel of the No. 2 BB&T Chevy, Bowyer will turn his attention to the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Flag-to-flag coverage of the division’s annual 600-miler from Lowe’s Motor Speedway will take the green flag Sunday, May 25 beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be televised live on FOX and broadcast on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 12th points-paying race on the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule will be telecast live on SPEED Thursday, May 22 beginning at 7 p.m. EDT. 

* Catch the Action … Live coverage of the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 will take the green flag Saturday, May 24 at 7 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised live on ESPN2 and broadcast from coast to coast on PRN 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

• Right now, it looks like a three-car race for the championship between you, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Do you see it coming down to the wire between the three of you?

“Hopefully, it pans out well for us but the No. 20 car has been pretty stout, no matter who has been in the seat. It’s up to us to answer that call and get the job done. I still feel the same way I did at the beginning of the year. With the caliber of teams racing for this championship, the team who makes the least mistakes will win the championship, not necessarily the team with the most wins.”

• You finished eighth at Charlotte last fall and third in the spring. Do you feel like you’re closing in on your first win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway?

“I sure hope so. Charlotte has definitely been a challenge for me. I’ve struggled at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the past but I feel like I’ve gotten better since they re-paved the track so I hope that first win is right around the corner. I think we’re due for a win. We won at Bristol and that was a place where I really wanted to win. Rain delay or not, we got it done. Charlotte is right here in everyone’s backyard so everybody wants to win there.”

• Do you feel like the Nationwide program is starting to round out into a championship-caliber team?

“I feel like we have a good group of guys on the BB&T Chevrolet team and I think these guys can carry me to a championship. We can do it together. We’re the only team in the Nationwide shop at RCR that hasn’t won a championship and this is my third attempt. Hopefully, the third time will be a charm.”