Stage 1 Recap (Ended at Lap 80):
● Bowyer started 15th and finished 11th.
● Told the No. 14 crew that his car was tight in the early going.
● By lap 32 Bowyer was up to 12th, and he made his first scheduled stop at lap 40.
● Moved into the top-10 on lap 56, but his racecar was too loose in the closing laps to earn stage points, finishing 11th.
Stage 2 Recap (Ended at Lap 160):
● Bowyer started 11th and finished 12th.
● Climbed to fifth by lap 116, but he told the crew his car was getting looser with each lap.
● Restarted the race in 12th after pitting on lap 149 during a caution.
● Held the 12th position in the final laps of the stage.
Stage 3 Recap (Ended at Lap 267):
● Bowyer started 14th and finished 23rd.
● Pitted on lap 185 for four tires, fuel and adjustments and restarted 11th.
● Advanced to ninth by the lap-200 mark and moved to seventh after an incident affecting two of the leaders.
● Pitted from seventh during a caution with 50 to go and returned to the track in sixth.
● Bowyer’s day turned sour on the lap-257 restart when he and several cars made contact.
● Bowyer was forced to pit lane for repairs and fell two laps behind the leader.
Notes:
● Brad Keselowski won the South Point 400 to score his 27th career Cup Series victory, his third of the season and third in a row, and his third at Las Vegas. His margin of victory over second-place Kyle Larson was 1.276 seconds.
● There were 12 caution periods for a total of 59 laps.
● Eighteen of the 40 drivers in the South Point 400 finished on the lead lap.
● A 10-minute and 37-second red-flag period just before the end of the race set up a green-white-checkered finish that sent the race into overtime.
Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 One Cure Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“That was a disappointing day. Nearly everyone in the playoffs had trouble, and I thought we were going to capitalize, but there at the end it all went bad. Our car wasn’t anything like it was yesterday. We struggled but were making a decent day out of it until the end.”
Playoff Standings: (with two races to go before Round of 12):
1. Brad Keselowski (2,069 points) 1 win
2. Martin Truex Jr. (2,087 points) +65 points
3. Kyle Busch (2,085 points) +63 points
4. Kevin Harvick (2,060 points) +38 points
5. Joey Logano (2,056 points) +34 points
6. Kurt Busch (2,046 points) +24 points
7. Ryan Blaney (2,042 points) +20 points
8. Kyle Larson (2,041 points) +19 points
9. Aric Almirola (2,034 points) +12 points
10. Austin Dillon (2,031 points) +9 points
11. Clint Bowyer (2,029 points) +7 points
12. Alex Bowman (2,028 points) +6 points
13. Jimmie Johnson (2,022 points) -6 points
14. Chase Elliott (2,019 points) -9 points
15. Erik Jones (2,009 points) -19 points
16. Denny Hamlin (2,008 points) -20 points
Next Up:
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Saturday, Sept. 22 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. It is the second race of the 10-race playoffs, and it starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN beginning at 6 p.m.
TSC PR/Photo Credit Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
