Bowyer gets chance to revive racing career

Clint Bowyer gets his first ride in a brand new shiny Ford Fusion, one adorned with Tony Stewart’s beloved No. 14 on the side, when practice for the Daytona 500 begins on Saturday.

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. » Clint Bowyer hasn’t won a race since 2012, hasn’t made the playoffs in three years and is coming off an embarrassingly bad season.

The worst of his career. It was so bad the one-time championship contender was a backmarker in nearly every event.

But there was never reason to panic for Bowyer, who was long-slated to replace three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart when Stewart retired at the end of last year. It meant a happy ending for Bowyer. He’d get to move to Stewart-Haas Racing, his one-year banishment to HScott Motorsports — where he was stashed for a year to wait for Stewart’s finale — finally over. Bowyer would get his reprieve.

He gets his first ride in a brand new shiny Ford Fusion, one adorned with Stewart’s beloved No. 14 on the side, when practice for the Daytona 500 begins on Saturday.

It’s fair to ask Bowyer, after failing to run well for such a long stretch, if he still knows his way to victory lane.

“Hey, that’s a real legitimate question,” Bowyer said. “You just don’t know. I think the last time I was in a good car, I was good. I think that I’m a smarter driver than I was three years ago. I think I’m plenty capable of winning races. I love what I see at Stewart-Haas, I really do believe if I’m going to win a race this is the exact team I’m going to win with.

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if it was the Daytona 500? So I can stop answering that damn question?”

Bowyer is one of the skilled plate racers in NASCAR and he can typically rise to the challenge of a tight pack and split-second decision making. He’s a two-time winner at Talladega and has three topfive finishes at Daytona. It makes Daytona International Speedway probably the best place for him to debut with a new team because he’s so comfortable at the track.

“I love Daytona. I know a lot of people don’t say that, but I like it. Maybe I’m a lunatic?” he said.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Team owner Tony Stewart, left, and driver Clint Bowyer pose for a photo during a news conference this past January.