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CLINT BOWYER – 2017 Dover II Race Report

Event:               Apache Warrior 400 (Round 29 of 36)
Series:               Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile oval)
Format:             400 laps, broken into three stages (120 laps/120 laps/160 laps)
Start/Finish:      19th/6th (Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
Point Standing:             17th with 750 points 

Race Winner:      Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Brad Keselowski of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-120):

  • Clint Bowyer started 19th, finished 14th.
  • Bowyer moved from 19th to 15th in the first 10 laps then climbed as high as 11th.
  • Bowyer pitted under green for tires and fuel on lap 84, but a lap-87 caution dropped him off the lead lap.
  • NASCAR stopped the race for the lap-87 wreck to repair a pit-lane wall.
  • Bowyer took the wave-around and returned to the lead lap.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 121-240):

  • Started 16th and finished 10th to earn one stage point.
  • Moved into the top-10 on lap 164.
  • Pitted under caution on lap 171 and restarted 10th.
  • Crew made small air pressure adjustments to improve the handling at the end of the stage.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 241-400):

  • Started seventh, finished sixth.
  • Quickest car on the track on lap 275.
  • Raced in eighth with 110 laps to go and turned the quickest lap on the track with 100 laps remaining.
  • Pitted under green with 75 laps left in the race.
  • Bowyer climbed as high as fifth in the closing laps.

Notes:

  • Bowyer scored his sixth top-five and 12th top-10 finish of 2017.
  • This was Bowyer’s 13th top-10 finish in 24 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover.
  • Bowyer finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn one bonus point.
  • There were four caution periods for a total of 24 laps.
  • Only 12 of the 40 drivers in the Apache Warrior 400 finished on the lead lap.
  • Kyle Busch won the Apache Warrior 400 to score his 42nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season, second in a row and third at Dover. His margin of victory over second-place Chase Elliott was .357 of a second.

 

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

 

“We had a really good car today. That first caution didn’t help, and that put us a lap down. We battled back pretty well. We seemed to have our balance shift in waves today. First it’s too tight, then too loose, then back again. It wasn’t a win, but it was a good day.”                                                                                   

Next Up: 

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bank of America 500 on Sunday, Oct. 8 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel 90.