Stage 1 Recap (Ended at Lap 25):
● Bowyer started fifth and finished third to earn eight bonus points.
● The No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford tucked into fifth in the opening laps and held the position in the early going.
● Bowyer told the crew he brushed the wall midway through the stage.
● He moved from sixth to fourth when he stayed on the track during the race’s first caution on lap 21.
● On the lap-24 restart Bowyer moved to third, where he finished as the stage ended under caution.
● He told the crew he needed his Ford to turn better in the corners.
Stage 2 Recap (Ended at Lap 50):
● Bowyer started 30th and finished third to earn eight bonus points.
● The No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford pitted before the stage and drove from the back to the front of the field.
● Bowyer had moved back into the top-10 by lap 36.
● During a lap-43 caution, Bowyer stayed on the track and moved to second place.
● Bowyer took the lead on lap 44 and also led lap 45 – his first laps led at the Roval.
● Bowyer held on using the older tires to finish third.
Stage 3 Recap (Ended at Lap 109):
● Bowyer started 21st and finished fourth.
● The No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford endured some scary moments on the restart but had climbed to 13th by a lap-60 caution.
● At this point in the race Bowyer had moved to 10th in the standings, securing a spot in the Round of 12.
● Bowyer raced in 12th with 42 laps to go and in sixth with 36 laps remaining.
● Bowyer climbed as high as second in the closing laps, but he avoided any risky moves in the final laps to finish fourth and preserve his points lead.
● Bowyer’s fourth-place finish and 16 bonus points enabled him to finish 17 points above the playoff cutoff and advance to the Round of 12.
Notes:
● Bowyer earned his seventh top-five and 14th top-10 of the season, and his second top-five in two career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Roval.
● Bowyer’s fourth-place result was just shy of equaling his previous best finish at the Roval – third, earned last September.
● This is Bowyer’s second straight top-10. He finished eighth in the series’ last race at Richmond.
● Chase Elliott won the Bank of America Roval 400to score his sixth career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his first at the Roval. His margin of victory over second-place Alex Bowman was 3.024 seconds.
● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 23 laps.
● Thirty-three of the 40 drivers in the Bank of America Roval 400finished on the lead lap.
Playoff Standings (at the conclusion of the Round of 16):
1. Kyle Busch (3,046 points)
2. Martin Truex Jr. (3,041 points, -5)
3. Denny Hamlin (3,030 points, -16)
4. Joey Logano (3,029 points, -17)
5. Kevin Harvick (3,028 points, -18)
6. Brad Keselowski (3,024 points, -22)
7. Chase Elliott (3,024 points, -22)
8. Kyle Larson (3,006 points, -40)
9. Alex Bowman (3,005 points, -41)
10. Ryan Blaney (3,004 points, -42)
11. William Byron (3,001 points, -45)
12. Clint Bowyer (3,000 points, -46)
Failed to Advance to Round of 12:
13. Aric Almirola (2,081 points)
14. Ryan Newman (2,070 points)
15. Kurt Busch (2,056 points)
16. Erik Jones (2,009 points)
Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We did what we had to do. We knew what we had to do all weekend long. We knew we had to dig ourselves out of a hole we put ourselves in at Vegas. We had a good weekend last weekend in Richmond and had a great weekend this weekend. Coulda, woulda, shoulda – maybe a little bit more aggressive on those restarts, but, again, you could have got yourself wrecked too. When it got down there to the end and we got our stage points and got ourselves in contention and was where we needed to be, it was time to re-evaluate your situation and where you were running and just protect. We were in protection mode.”
Next Up:
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Dover 400 on Sunday, Oct. 6 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. It is the fourth race of the 10-race playoffs and the first race in the Round of 12. It starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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