JOILET, Ill. – Early in the Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Clint Bowyer appeared to have the car to beat.
Then Bowyer beat himself.
After pitting from the race lead on Lap 38, Bowyer sped on pit road while exiting and was forced to pit again for a drive-thru penalty. Five laps later, Bowyer during his penalty stop sped again and now had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for the double infraction.
While coming to pit road to serve the stop-and-go-penalty – Bowyer never stopped in his pit box and was forced to stop a fourth time to acknowledge the stop-and-go-penalty.
In a span of 10 laps, Bowyer lost two laps and fell from first to 34th and had to use strategy during Stage 2 to put his No. 14 WIX Filters Ford back on the lead lap.
Opting to stay out during a round of green-flag pit stops, Bowyer found himself one lap behind, but when the caution waved on Lap 128 for debris in Turn 2, Bowyer was the beneficiary of the free pass which put his Stewart-Haas Racing team back in contention.
Restarting at the tail end of the field, Bowyer methodically worked his way forward and rejoined the top-10 by the end of Stage 2 finishing eighth.
Over the final Stage 3, Bowyer battled handling woes and used a caution at Lap 209 to pit for tires, fuel and a slight air pressure adjustment to combat the speed through the center of the turns.
Restarting 12th, Bowyer used the final 54 laps to wrestle his way back through the field to finish fifth, the second highest amongst the Stewart-Haas Racing brigade behind Kevin Harvick who finished third.
“Yeah, we were too fast,” said Bowyer. “The guys work very hard on making sure that they are pushing the envelope, which you have to do in this world and against this competition. You have to push everything. Certainly, pit road is a big part of that. You are splitting hairs out there on the race track down to the tenths of a second and you can gain seconds on pit road.
Obviously, our pit road speed was just a little too fast. We practiced it yesterday and the guys even made some adjustments but that tight section down there was just too fast. The first time you second guess yourself.
“You come down the second time and you are cautious and speed again so now you know you’ve got a problem. Then it was just confusion on my part. I wasn’t listening and made a mistake and cost us a third time down.
“We got good at pitting today, unfortunately. The capabilities there to run with these three guys. Our race team is young and making some mistakes, but we have time to gain on those and build on those.”
With the speed in his No. 14 Ford, Bowyer said he hated to give away crucial stage points – if not a stage win.
“You hate to give away those stage points,” Bowyer added. “I think we could have won both those stages and maybe been in contention for a win. I am proud of everybody. WIX Filters was on the car this weekend and everybody at Ford and the IT Savvy folks are here.
“We have a lot of good mojo on this 14 car, we just have to put it all together to get another win.”
Oh, and Bowyer insisted that his demeanor after the penalty help contributed to his sixth top-five finish of 2018.
“Well, add a fast car and a bit of a pissed off attitude and it is amazing what you can do,” he quipped.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
