HOMESTEAD, Fla. – It’s not how Clint Bowyer wanted to end his tenure at Michael Waltrip Racing, but considering how his season is gone –it’s not surprising that the driver of the No. 15 5-HOUR Energy Toyota Camry ended with a 43rd place finish in Sunday’s season-finale Ford EcoBoost 400.
Following a restart for a crash involving Kasey Kahne, the two cars of Clint Bowyer and Ty Dillon made contact on the backstretch – igniting a five-car pileup that ended the race hopes for not only Bowyer but last week’s Sprint Cup Series winner Dale Earnhardt Jr., Aric Almirola and Casey Mears.
The heavy damage to Bowyer’s machine was deemed unrepairable – forcing the last race of the No. 15 team of Michael Waltrip Racing’s to finish on the hook, with just 45 laps complete.
“I don’t know what in the hell happened to our car. I was kind of optimistic about the race,” said Bowyer. “We made a pit stop there and the car was just a way big handful there. I don’t know, I was coming off of (turn) 2 there and Ty (Dillon) kind of got squirrely and I tried to stay off of him and my car got loose and I just couldn’t catch it. I don’t know, we just lost the handling on our car big time there.”
Through hard work and a little luck, Michael Waltrip Racing fought their way into The Chase, but found themselves in a deep hole, one too tough to overcome after a p-4 penalty for suspension and track bar issues following the opening round race at Chicagoland Speedway knocked them out of competition at Dover (Del.) International Speedway in October.
Since then the team clung to hope for movement from their 16th place position in the championship standings, but only managed one top-10 in The Chase, an eighth at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Two 43rd place finishes in two of the final four races of the season didn’t help their cause either – even to move past Matt Kenseth who was suspended for two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Texas and Phoenix for his payback on fellow driver Joey Logano for an incident stemming from Kansas Speedway earlier in the Chase.
“I wanted to end on a strong note for everybody at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). Appreciate all of their hard work and efforts all these years but, unfortunately, it’s over.”
Bowyer will join HScott Motorsports for the 2016 season before moving to Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the No. 14 Chevrolet in 2017 for the retiring Tony Stewart.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
