Handling Woes, Tire Trials Offset by Engine Praises for Bowyer, Jack Daniel’s  Chevy at Indianapolis

Race/Date: Allstate 400 at the Brickyard – July 27, 2008 - Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Start Position: 40th - Finish Position: 19th - Points Position: 12th – Gained one position

INDIANAPOLIS – While the prevailing storyline was all about tire trouble in Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, an exciting sidebar for Clint Bowyer and the Jack Daniel’s Racing team was a big engine that certainly could.

Bowyer heaped high praises on his Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines powerplant throughout the 160-lap event.

Despite a rash of tire-related issues that plagued the entire field and handling troubles that kept the third-year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver from challenging for the win, Bowyer kept the Jack Daniel’s Chevy underneath him all afternoon and came away with a top-20 finish.

At the same time, Bowyer moved up one spot, from 13th to 12th, in the Sprint Cup Series championship point standings. The Emporia, Kan., native is now just four points behind Matt Kenseth in 11th and just 37 markers outside the top 10.

Bowyer started the annual 400-miler from “The Racing Capital of the World” 40th on the grid after struggling during Saturday morning’s qualifying session. The two-time Sprint Cup Series winner was quick out of the gate and picked up six spots before crossing the famed yard of bricks to complete the first lap. By lap nine he was up to 25th and 24th when NASCAR threw the second yellow flag of the afternoon for an incident between turns one and two.

Bowyer informed crew chief Gil Martin the Jack Daniel’s Chevy was a “little too snug” during the opening laps. Martin remedied the problem with a slight air pressure adjustment to the right-rear tire during the team’s first pit stop of the day and, when the green flag waved on lap 17, Bowyer was up to 18th in the running order.

Due to excessive tire wear and several instances of cars blowing right-rears in as few as five to six laps, NASCAR displayed six competition caution flags, approximately every 10-12 laps, to give teams as many chances as possible to change tires.

Bowyer ran as high as 12th at one point but spent the majority of the afternoon racing between 14th and just inside the top 20, all the while handing out compliments to the ECR Engines team.

By the end of the day, 11 caution flags consumed nearly one-third of the event. Bowyer was on pit lane eight more times for fuel, tires and adjustments. As the race wound down, he commented about a loose-handling condition but still hung on to finish inside the top 20.

Jimmie Johnson notched his second win in three years at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, beating Carl Edwards to the checkered flag by just over three-tenths of a second. Denny Hamlin finished third, Elliott Sadler was fourth with Jeff Gordon rounding out the top five.

Bowyer’s Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick finished ninth and 37th, respectively. Harvick was collected in an early-race incident when Kurt Busch lost control of his No. 2 machine in the short chute and slid down the track into Harvick’s path, leaving the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevy with significant damage.

Next weekend, NASCAR’s senior circuit returns to Pocono Raceway for the second and final stop of 2008 at the tricky, triangular-shaped two-and-a-half mile race course.

The Sunoco American Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 will take the green flag Sunday, August 3 at 2 p. m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be televised live on ESPN beginning at 1 p.m. EDT and broadcast from coast-to-coast on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 21st points-paying race on the 36-race Sprint Cup Series tour will be televised live on ESPN2 Friday, August 1 at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

• CLINT BOWYER QUOTE

“We were pretty good early on but the Jack Daniel’s Chevy got really loose toward the end of the race and I just couldn’t get into the corner. The motor in our car was incredible. It ran down the straighaways better than anything I’ve ever driven at Indianapolis so I have to give a lot of credit to the guys at ECR Engines. We’re definitely making some gains in the engine department so, even if we didn’t finish as well as we hoped, we’ve got a lot to feel good about.”