BB&T Team Click Off Another Top-10 Finish

Race/Date: Heluva Good! 200 – May 31, 2008 - Location: Dover (Del.) International Speedway - Start Position: 21st - Finish Position: Ninth
Points Position: First – maintained position and increased point lead

DOVER, Del. – The BB&T Racing team overcame a mid-pack qualifying effort and battled handling issues throughout the Heluva Good! 200 at Dover International Speedway but Clint Bowyer & Co. were still able to bring home a ninth-place finish from the “Monster Mile.”

The top-10 showing was the team’s 11th such effort in the season’s first 14 races. Bowyer’s lead in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings is now 121 over second-place Kyle Busch and 144 over third-place Carl Edwards.

Saturday morning’s qualifying effort was hampered by a loose-handling race car which relegated the No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS to a starting spot on the inside of row 11. Rain then delayed the start of the race by three hours before the green flag finally waved over the 43-car field at 6:15 p.m.

The field was scheduled to take a competition caution on lap 30 but a yellow flag on lap 20 slowed the field for the first of the day’s six caution periods. Bowyer told crew chief Dan Deeringhoff that the handling of the race car was tight in the turns from the center off. Adjustments were made and Bowyer returned to the racing surface, taking the green flag in the 14th position after picking up eight spots on pit road.

The BB&T team maintained that basic position through the first half of the 200-lap race before pitting again under caution on lap 105. Another strong stop picked up three more spots for the team and Bowyer restarted 11th on lap 109. He moved into ninth that same lap and bounced between there and eighth for the next 46 laps before coming down pit lane, again under caution.

Bowyer was seventh when green-flag racing resumed on lap 159 and he maintained that position until the race’s final few laps when handling issues forced him to drop two spots before the checkered flag waved.

Denny Hamlin earned his second NNS victory of the season. The rest of the top-five finishers were Carl Edwards, David Stremme, David Reuitmann and Greg Biffle. Bowyer’s RCR teammate Scott Wimmer finished 12th.

Bowyer and the BB&T racing team will next take to the 1.33-mile D-shaped concrete oval of Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway for the Federated Auto Parts 300. Live coverage begins Saturday, June 7 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be televised live in ESPN2 and broadcast from coast to coast on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 15th race on the 2008 schedule will be televised live on ESPN2 the same day at 3:00 p.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast qualifying updates live.

• CLINT BOWYER QUOTES

“We just never found the handling setup to get the BB&T Chevy to the front. The guys did a great job in the pits and we picked up some points on Kyle (Busch) so it wasn’t a bad day. After all that rain, I’m just glad we got the race in for the fans that stayed.”