Clint Bowyer 31st at Talladega

Start/Finish: 8th/31st (Accident, completed 165 of 188 laps)

Point Standing: 4th with 335 points, 112 out of first

 

Race Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 1 Winner: Brad Keselowski of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 2 Winner: Paul Menard of Wood Brothers Racing (Ford)

 

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-55):

Clint Bowyer started eighth and finished 30th.

● Bowyer and many drivers reported their cars were difficult to turn.

● Pitted under green on lap 15 to top off fuel, then returned to the pits the next lap with a cut right-rear tire.

● Regained one of the two lost laps on lap 47.

 

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 56-110):

Bowyer started 32nd and finished 27th.

● Pitted under green to top off fuel on lap 67.

● Bowyer fell one spot short of earning the free pass and returning to the lead lap at stage’s end.

 

Final Stage Recap (Laps 111-188):

Bowyer started 27th and finished 31st.

● Moved into the free-pass position as soon as the stage started. A much-needed caution flew on lap 127, returning Bowyer to the lead lap running in 27th.

● Bowyer made a scheduled green-flag stop for fuel only with 43 laps to go.

● Restarted the race in ninth with 30 laps remaining.

● A multicar crash with 22 laps remaining collected the No. 14 as he raced in 12th.

● Bowyer was not hurt, but the car was too badly damaged to continue.

 

Notes:

● Bowyer came into Talladega riding a four-race streak of top-10 finishes. His 31st-place result in the GEICO 500 was his first this season outside of the top-20.

● Joey Logano won the GEICO 500 to score his 19th career Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his third at Talladega. His margin of victory over second-place Kurt Busch was .127 of a second.

● Ford took six of the top-10 finishing positions.

● There were six caution periods for a total of 29 laps.

● Twenty-two of the 40 drivers in the GEICO 500 finished on the lead lap.

 

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

“I don’t know if he got loose or was trying to get in a hole, but the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) wasn’t clear and wrecked a bunch of us. That was just kind of par for our day. It started when we locked the right-rear wheel up somehow coming to the pits and flat spotted that and had to come back in. We finally got two laps back, I got one lap back and then finally got on the lead lap, and then we wrecked. Par for the course.”

 

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the AAA 400 Drive for Autism on Sunday, May 6 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 beginning with a prerace show at 12:30 p.m.

 

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