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.
SHR PR/Photo Getty Images for NASCAR
