Event: Inaugural Go Bowling 235 (Round 23 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (14-turn, 3.61-mile road course)
Format: 65 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/35 laps)
Start/Finish: 12th/6th (Running, completed 65 of 65 laps)
Point Standing: 11th with 618 points, 321 out of first
Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-15):
● Clint Bowyer started 12th and finished fourth to earn seven bonus points.
● The No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford moved up a position on each of the first two laps.
● Bowyer was one of the fastest on the track climbing to sixth by lap 10.
● Bowyer moved to fourth with two laps to go in the stage.
● During the stage break, No. 14 crew made rear air pressure adjustments to help Bowyer’s drive off the turns.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 16-30):
● Bowyer started 21st and finished second to earn nine bonus points.
● The No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford moved to 13th by lap 20.
● Bowyer kept turning quick lap times despite his air conditioning not working.
● He climbed to second by lap 28.
● During the stage break, Bowyer pitted for four tires, fuel and more rear air pressure adjustments.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 31-65):
● Bowyer started 19th and finished sixth.
● The No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford moved to 13th with 32 laps remaining.
● Lightning paused the race for 31 minutes with 29 laps to go.
● Bowyer moved to sixth with 24 laps remaining and claimed fourth with 20 to go
● Bowyer made his first green-flag stop of the race with 19 laps to go.
● Bowyer raced in fourth with 10 to go about 13 seconds behind the leader.
● The first accident of the day brought out the caution with five laps remaining.
● Bowyer stayed on the track and restarted the race in fourth with three laps to go.
● Bowyer fell to eighth on the restart, but climbed back to sixth before the checkered flag fell.
Notes:
● Bowyer is 14th in the playoff standings with a 66-point cushion over the final transfer spot into the 16-driver playoff field. Three races remain in the regular season.
● The 47 points Bowyer earned Sunday in Daytona is the most he has earned in a 2020 race.
● Bowyer earned his sixth top-10 of the season and his 18th top-10 in 31 career road-course starts in the NASCAR Cup Series.
● Bowyer has one road-course victory – Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in 2012.
● Prior to the Go Bowling 235, Bowyer last raced on the Daytona road course in 2013 during the Rolex 24 sports-car race.
● Chase Elliott won the inaugural Go Bowling 235 to score his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his fourth on a road course. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .202 of a second.
● There were four caution periods for a total of seven laps.
● Thirty-two of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Kevin Harvick remains the championship leader after Daytona with a 118-point advantage over second-place Hamlin.
Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We did what we needed to do today. We had a great Mobil 1 Ford. I thought it was going to be even better there at the end. (William Byron) got me on the restart and then another car got by me. If I didn’t have anything to lose there I might have been able to get a few more back. But, that was a good points day. I hope we are on a roll and we continue this at Dover.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader Aug. 22-23 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Each race is 311 laps around the 1-mile, concrete oval. Start time for each race is 4 p.m. EDT and live coverage of both will be provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
