BB&T Team Back in Top-10 Form in Montreal Rain

Race/Date: NAPA Auto Parts 200 – Aug. 2, 2008 - Location: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – Montreal, Canada - Start Position: 29th - Finish Position: Ninth - 
Points Position: First (168 points ahead)

MONTREAL – Other than on a videogame screen, Clint Bowyer had never seen Circuit Gilles Villeneuve before Saturday’s NAPA Auto Parts 200 but he still came away with a ninth-place finish despite the inexperience and running in the rain.

Bowyer is now 168 points ahead of Carl Edwards, who moved into second place ahead of Brad Keselowski (184 back) with 12 races remaining on the 35-race NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. David Reutimann is fourth (-319) and David Ragan is fifth (-345).

Stephen Leicht was on-hand to practice the No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Friday’s two sessions on the 14-turn, 2.71-mile road course outside Montreal. He was also scheduled to qualify the car for Bowyer, who was double-booked with Cup Series practice sessions at Pocono Raceway. Rain at Long Pond, Pa., however, allowed Bowyer to leave early and make the Nationwide Series qualifying session. The No. 2 BB&T Chevy was in the seventh group of cars that qualified and Bowyer’s quick lap of 1:47.365 minutes (90.834 mph) was the 29th-quickest run.

A crowd of enthusiastic Canadian race fans were on-hand as the 43-car field took the green flag with the threat of rain imminent. Just seven laps in, with Bowyer having quickly picked up six spots, NASCAR displayed the yellow then red flags to allow teams to install tail lights, windshield wipers, and air ducts onto the inside of the windshield and rear window as well as bolt on rain tires manufactured in 1999.

The race finally restarted on lap 14 after a delay of nearly an hour. The Emporia, Kan., native carefully made his way around the slippery track and was 17th when the second caution flag waved on lap 21. He was 13th when another caution slowed the field on lap 30. Crew chief Dan Deeringhoff kept his driver on the track during both cautions and the BB&T Chevy was 10th on the lap-33 restart.

Bowyer brought the No. 2 Chevy down pit lane on lap 40 for a green-flag stop while running in the eighth position. The BB&T pit crew made a great stop, especially considering the rainy conditions, returning their driver to the racing surface in the 16th position. Bowyer called in just a lap later that the rain, which by that time was really coming down hard, was seriously affecting his vision. He picked up a couple spots as the field cycled through green-flag pit stops and was ninth when NASCAR waved the red flag and ended the race after completing 48 of the scheduled 74 laps.

Canadian Ron Fellows earned his fourth Nationwide Series victory and was followed across the finish line by fellow Canadian Patrick Carpentier. Marcos Ambrose, Ron Hornaday and Boris Said rounded out the top-five finishers. Richard Childress Racing’s Scott Wimmer finished 11th.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series will keep turning left and right with the next stop at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

The Zippo 200 will be televised live on ABC on Saturday, Aug. 9 beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 24th round of the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship will be televised on ESPN2 the same day beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.

• CLINT BOWYER QUOTES

“Well, now I can say I drove a race in the rain. It was actually kind of neat for a while until the rain and the spray off the cars made it so you couldn’t see a thing. We were still carrying quite a bit of speed on the front straight and something big could’ve happened if NASCAR didn’t call it when they did. The BB&T team did everything they could for me so we’ll take another top 10.”