Bowyer, Camping World Chevy Notch Top 
Three in Sam’s Town 300

Emporia, Kan., Driver Continues to Climb Nationwide Series Charts - Race/Date: Sam’s Town 300 - Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas
Start Position: Eighth - Finish Position: Third - Points Position: Sixth – Gained Four Positions

Las Vegas – Clint Bowyer scored his first top-three finish of 2008 in Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

At the same time, the Emporia, Kan., native climbed four spots, from 10th to sixth, in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) driver’s point standings. It was the second time in two weeks Bowyer made notable gains in his run at the division title. With his ninth-place finish last weekend in California, he catapulted 14 positions in the standings, recovering from a 24th-place finish in the season opener two weeks ago at Daytona International Speedway.

In two races, Bowyer has rocketed from 24th to sixth in points – a head-turning swing of 18 positions.

In qualifying Saturday morning, the NNS veteran toured the tricky Las Vegas tri-oval in 30.082 seconds (179.509 mph), locking in a starting spot on the outside of the fourth row.

At the drop of the green, Bowyer was quick to pick up spots on the track and was fourth when the first of 13 caution flags on the day waved just two laps into the 300-mile race. The 28-year-old driver ran in the top five, and as high as third, during the opening segment before making his first trip to pit road on lap 25 for a fresh set of tires and a full tank of fuel.

After several teams chose to either not pit or take tires during the opening round of pit stops, Bowyer was 16th when the green flag waved but back in the top 10 less than 15 circuits later.

He continued his steady forward progress over the early stages of the event and was inside the top five just prior to the one-third mark. The blue and gold Camping World machine was fourth when Bowyer headed to pit lane for his third stop of the day on lap 104 but a hiccup during the stop cost the team four positions. Fortunately, Bowyer was quick to recover and back to fifth by lap 122.

As the laps continued to click off, Bowyer stayed out of trouble and continued to run near the front of the field. He made two more pit stops over the latter stages and looked to be in position to finish fifth until contact by Mark Martin collected second-place Carl Edwards and then leader Brad Kesolowski with four laps remaining setting up and green, white, checkered-flag finish The late-race incident handed Bowyer, by default, two spots in the running order and the five-time NNS winner was third on the leader board for the two-lap sprint to the checkers.

Despite a spirited effort in the seat and on pit road, Bowyer and company couldn’t catch the top two but still managed to notch the group’s first top-three effort of the young season.

Bowyer’s RCR teammates Jeff Burton and Bobby Labonte didn’t fare as well. Labonte retired from the event early after a lap 74 skirmish with the turn 4 wall and Burton was credited with 24th after engine trouble in the closing laps.

Martin won the race, beating Greg Biffle by just over a half-a-second. Bowyer was third, Kevin Harvick was fourth and David Stremme finished fifth.

Next weekend, the NNS heads back to the southeast for its annual spring classic a little less than an hour south of Atlanta in Hampton, Ga.

Flag-to-flag coverage of the Nicorette 300 from Atlanta Motor Speedway will be televised live Saturday, March 8 on ESPN2 beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The race will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the fourth stop on the 2008 NNS schedule will be televised the same day on SPEED beginning at 9 a.m. EST. PRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide live qualifying updates.

• CLINT BOWYER QUOTES

“I’m really proud of Dan (crew chief Dan Deeringhoff) and all the guys on the Camping World team. They gave me a good car, made a few subtle but very effective changes on pit road and we wound up with a top three. Realistically, we probably had a fifth- to seventh-place car but it got pretty wild at the end. We had a couple near misses and were able to walk away with a good top three. We’ve made up some pretty significant ground in the points over the last couple weeks so we just need to stay on track and keep doing what we’ve been doing.”