Bowyer long prepped for success
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 topfive 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.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Erik Jones led 112 of 200 laps to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the repaved and reconfigured Texas track. The 20-year-old Jones got his seventh career Xfinity win, getting this one at the 1 ½-mile track where he first got to Victory Lane two years ago.
INDYCAR: Mario Andretti will get back into a race car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to go head-to-head in semi-autonomous vehicles against paralyzed former driver Sam Schmidt. The race will be May 13 on the 2.439-mile permanent road course at Indianapolis.