Clint Bowyer: ‘You get me a car capable of winning, I’ll win in it’
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Clint Bowyer sounded a bit like former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis on Tuesday.
As a Kansas City Chiefs fan, Bowyer would probably shudder a the comparison. But given his comments during Daytona media day, it was hard not to think of Davis’ famous line “Just win, baby.”
Bowyer hasn’t won a Sprint Cup race since 2012. If he doesn’t win in 2016 for HScott Motorsports, he’ll be on a four-year winless streak when he joins Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017 as Tony Stewart’s replacement. But his confidence hasn’t waned.
“I believe this,” Bowyer said as he then recited a timeline of his recent career. “You get me a car capable of winning, I’ll win in it. I’ve always done that. When you look at my whole career and the stats … it’s really easy to figure out where I’m going to ride because it’s extremely consistent and there’s always a void in it. I had a bad year at RCR, switched crew chiefs, went back to the exact same how I ran. Had a good year in 13, got to the Chase, and all hell broke loose. 14 was a complete catastrophe. 15 was even worse. They’re closing the door. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”
Bowyer is spending the 2016 season at HScott Motorsports after Michael Waltrip Racing shut its doors. Bowyer moved to MWR before the 2012 season and spent four seasons with the team. After 23 top-10 finishes in 2012, his total declined every year to 12 in 2015.
“As a racecar driver, it’s a mental thing. You’ve got to be in equipment that can get the job done. And I know it. No [BS]. You’ve got to know that that thing can win on any given Sunday. If you don’t, it’s hard to win in it.”
Breaking the streak may be hard to do in 2016. Bowyer is essentially replacing Justin Allgaier at HSM and Allgaier finished 29th and 30th over the past two seasons in the Cup Series. He said he thinks the team could contend for a Chase berth and maybe get a win.
“I think you can sneak in and win a race,” Bowyer said. “If you could do that, that would be monumental for a team like this, in a situation like this.”
I do believe we could back into the Chase. I think we could be consistent enough with some of my things that I’ve done over the years. Consistency has been one of my strong points, if we can get the cars close enough where you’re not having to drive over the capabilities to get the job done.”
• Bowyer also said that there were no discussions for him to replace Stewart in the No. 14 in 2016 after news of Stewart’s back injury broke. The three-time champion is sidelined indefinitely after suffering a fractured vertebra in a sand buggy accident and Bowyer said he found out about Stewart via Twitter.
“30 seconds later [Stewart-Haas Racing competition director Greg Zipadelli] texts me, Hey, can you take a call?,” Bowyer said. “It’s serious. That’s how all that transpired.
“But, you know, how would you ever make that happen 12 days before the season, before you’re going to be racing at Daytona? And furthermore, I wanted Tony to come back. I’m glad that he chose to come back. However many races that is, we need him here, and I want him to come back and get back to his running up front and winning ways.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
