Bowyer enjoying fresh start
He’ll start third today in Texas for Stewart-Haas
FORT WORTH — Clint Bowyer had long prepared to enjoy this season, knowing the opportunity waiting for him to be successful again in the NASCAR Cup Series.
That certainly helped Bowyer get through the worst season in his career with a now-shuttered team.
“Last year is just last year. I think I was prepared to enjoy this year even last year,” said Bowyer, now driving the No. 14 Stewart-Haas car in the former seat of one of the team’s owners.
“This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often, whether it was my first opportunity in this sport or my last.”
Bowyer will start third Sunday in Texas. His best qualifying effort since succeeding three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart comes after consecutive finishes in the top seven at Fontana and Martinsville. Bowyer is eighth in season points through six Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races.
Last year with HScott Motorsports on a stopgap deal to keep racing, Bowyer was 27th in points and without a top-five finish. That was by far the worst of 11 full Cup seasons for the driver who began his career with Richard Childress Racing (2005-11) and then went to Michael Waltrip Racing (2012-15).
Now he’s teammates with former Cup champions Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, and popular driver Danica Patrick.
“I have two championship-winning drivers as teammates. Danica, everything she brings for our entire sport, let alone the company,” Bowyer said. “This is the opportunity you are giddy about no matter where you are at in your career.”
Harvick is the polesitter at the 1½-mile Texas track that earlier this year was completely repaved and reconfigured in Turns 1 and 2.
Ford drivers took the top five spots in qualifying, with Ryan Blaney set to start on the front row with Harvick. Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski round out the top five behind Bowyer.
XFINITY: Erik Jones led 112 of 200 laps Saturday for his seventh career Series win. He drove the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing a half-second ahead of Ryan Blaney, another full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver.
INDYCAR: Mario Andretti will get back into a race car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 13 to go head-to-head in semiautonomous vehicles against paralyzed former driver Sam Schmidt.
Schmidt was paralyzed from the neck down from a crash while testing an Indy car in 2000. He’ll drive the Z06 SAM Car, a semi-autonomous vehicle that global technology company Arrow Electronics modified for him. Sensors mounted on a headset connect to infrared cameras mounted on the dashboard and detect Schmidt’s headtilt motions to steer.
A sip-and-puff device that Schmidt breathes into enables him to accelerate and brake. Voice commands switch gears and turn the SAM Car on and off.
The race will benefit Conquer Paralysis Now, a nonprofit organization for spinal cord injury research and treatment founded by Schmidt.