Bowyer, BB&T Chevy Snatch Victory in Richmond

Race/Date: Dan Lowry 400 - May 3, 2008 - Location: Richmond International Raceway – Richmond, Va. - Start Position: 31st - Finish Position: First - 
Points Position: Fourth – Moved Up Three Spots

RICHMOND, Va. – There’s a lot to be said about being in the right place at the right time.

The right place was the top five during the closing stages of Saturday night’s Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

The right time was lap 398 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch got together in turn three coming to the white flag.

The late-race incident afforded Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 07 BB&T Chevrolet Impala SS, the lead when NASCAR displayed the night’s final caution on lap 399, setting up a green-white-checkered-flag finish. The 28-year-old driver easily held off Busch over the final two laps to pick up his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career victory.

The win also marked Bowyer’s seventh consecutive top 10 and third top-five finish over the last seven races, catapulting him from seventh to fourth in the Sprint Cup Series championship point standings.

The victory was the 88th for team owner Richard Childress in 39 years of competition in NASCAR’s top division and 183rd overall in NASCAR-sanctioned events. At the same time, Childress, a six-time Sprint Cup Series championship owner, has all three of his cars in the top five in points. Bowyer is fourth and teammates Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick are second and fifth, respectively.

After starting deep in the 43-car field, Bowyer sliced his way up to 17th, knocking down a handsome 14 positions in the opening 65 laps. Following a blistering-fast pit stop by his Gil Martin-led BB&T over-the-wall crew on lap 129, the Emporia, Kan., native jumped from 11th to eighth in the running order. It was the last time Bowyer would race outside the top 11 all night.

Despite the sub-par qualifying effort, Bowyer’s car was as fast as anything on the track when the green flag dropped. Other than minor air pressure adjustments, Martin and company didn’t have to turn a wrench on their burgundy and gold No. 07 machine on pit road.

By lap 269 of the scheduled 400-lap event, the third-year Sprint Cup driver broke into the top five where he would mix it up for the reminder of the race.

With 17 laps left on the scoreboard, then-leader Denny Hamlin cut a tire and Bowyer went by to move into third on lap 384. As the field was coming to the white flag, Busch and Earnhardt tangled and opportunity met preparation with Bowyer taking over the lead with only a two-lap sprint in between him and the Winner’s Circle.

The 28-year-old driver got a good jump on Busch coming to the green flag and never looked back. The victory was the second of the 10-race-old season for RCR and second in 20 races for Bowyer, dating back to his first win last September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Harvick was eighth and Burton finished 11th.

This weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will visit historic Darlington Raceway to take on the newly-resurfaced “Lady in Black.” Bowyer is the defending pole sitter at the legendary 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval.

Flag to flag coverage of the Dodge Challenger 500 from Darlington Raceway will be televised live on FOX Saturday, May 10 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Live television coverage of qualifying for the 11th race on the 2008 schedule will take the green flag Friday, May 9 at 5 p.m. EDT on SPEED. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide live qualifying updates.

• CLINT BOWYER QUOTES

“First off, qualifying, I really messed up on the guys and didn't give a good qualifying effort on my end and we started in the back. I knew we had a better race car than we qualified. I thought we were a top-10 car, and then we became kind of a top-five car. You know, the fastest car does not always win, and that was the case with the BB&T Chevrolet Impala SS at Richmond. We were fast all night, and once we were up there, we were able to run a lot better. You know, you've got to be there for the taking, at least, and we were close enough to do just that. It was pretty wild out there at the end. I think the incident with Kyle (Busch) and Dale Jr., it was bound to happen. I was watching it and Richard was on the radio saying, ‘It's going to happen,’ and sure enough, it did happen. I’m just as excited for everyone at BB&T as I am for everyone on the team. They got two Cup races this year and we were able to win one for them. The folks at BB&T are such big supporters of mine and RCR, in general, so that makes it very gratifying to be able to win a race while we were carrying those colors.”

• RICHARD CHILDRESS QUOTES

“It feels good. It's exciting when you have good preparation that meets opportunity. Clint and Gil (Martin) were prepared tonight, and the opportunity was there. If that's what you want to call it, he won by being there, and it was just a great race and I was just happy to be there. I'm happy for BB&T, Jack Daniels and DIRECTV. All three are great supporters of ours and all the fans.”

• GIL MARTIN QUOTES

“A lot of people may say we backed into the win but we started 31st and drove our way up to 17th, 16th before the first pit stop. We were coming along and we just needed track position. Once we got up in clean air with everybody we could run with the leaders during different stages of the run. Like Richard said, we had to capitalize on the situation. I'm just glad we were there.”