Bowyer wins rain-shortened race
Takes Monster Energy NASCAR Cup race
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Clint Bowyer gambled with a two-tire change after the conclusion of Stage 2 and went on to win a rain-shortened Fire Keepers Casino 400 on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race was delayed for 21⁄ hours by
2 rain and was called early at lap 133 of
200 when another storm cell made the track wet once more. The race was halted with Stewart-Haas Racing claiming the top three spots. Ford cars finished with seven of the top eight spots.
Bowyer, who took two tires on his last stop when nearly every driver took four, was able to beat his competitors off pit road and choose his lane on the front row for the restart. Bowyer led seven of the race’s 133 laps to earn his second win of the season and first ever at Michigan International Speedway.
Teammates Kevin Harvick, who had led the most laps (49), finished second, and Kurt Busch, who started on the pole, came home third.
Busch led the first 46 laps, before Ryan Blaney passed him with 14 laps remaining in the first stage. Blaney would win the first stage and finished eighth. Harvick won the second stage.
The race was one of the best in recent memory at Michigan in part because the threat of rain loomed large throughout the day, increasing the pressure on both drivers and crew chiefs to make the right decisions.
“It took something crazy on a restart to be able to get Kevin,” Bowyer said. “That was a gutsy call. When we went out there on two tires, I looked in the mirror and I was so far ahead of everybody else I was like, ‘Oh man, we are in trouble!’
“The rain came just in enough time. I was trying to hold him off. I was cutting him off and taking his line away pretty bad. If it wasn’t for a win, you wouldn’t be doing that. He was so much faster than me in (turns) one and two. I got down in three and just had to take his line because that bear was coming.
“He almost cleared me off of (turn two), and he would have rode off into the sunset again for the 4 car. I was able to just get by him because he left me room and was courteous and a good teammate. I tried to give him enough room in (turns) three and four but just enough that I was going to try to stay in front of him and take the air off him. That is the only thing you can really do in that situation.”
Bowyer crew chief Mike Bugarewicz said they were watching the weather and would probably need four tires at the end of the second stage. But a rain cell popped out, and they decided to take two tires instead. Harvick called it a weird day.
“If you are going to have rain kind of take one from you, I would rather give it to my teammate,” Harvick said. “I am happy for Clint and all the guys on the 14 team. Everyone on our car did a great job. I had a really fast car and the pit crew was the best thing that happened all day. They were solid all day and kept us up front. That to me is the best thing that came out of today.”
Kyle Busch , who finished fourth in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, was the only non-Ford in the top eight.
Paul Menard finished fifth in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, followed by Michigan native Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford.
Chase Elliott was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver. He finished ninth.
“We had a flat tire there on one of those first cautions and it kind of got us behind a little bit, but we were hovering right there kind of at the edge of the top
10 inside or outside depending upon the restarts and whatnot,” Elliott said. “I felt like we finished about where we deserved.”
Jamie McMurray, who finished 10th in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, said SHR had the speed all day.
“There were like three or four of the Stewart-Haas cars that looked like they were just dominant, but I actually wanted to go back green because we were on the outside and the outside was such an advantage on the restarts that you could get a couple of rows, but I think we had a sixth- to 10th-place car.”
Drivers will have next weekend off before racing in the Toyota/Save Mart
350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 24.