Clint Bowyer heads to Martinsville

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No.15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota driver Clint Bowyer heads to Martinsville Speedway for Sunday’s 500-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup with consecutive top-five finishes in his last two trips to the flat, half-mile, paperclip-shaped oval.

Bowyer, who finished a career best second at Martinsville in April, has three top-five and nine top-10 finishes in his 15 starts at Martinsville. He has led 247 laps with an average finish of 13th. Bowyer ranks eighth in the Sprint Cup Series standings with 2,197 points and trails point leader Jimmie Johnson by 57 points with four races remaining in the Sprint Cup season.

BOWYER ON MARTINSVILLE: “I love going to Martinsville. It’s a great race track with a lot of history. Martinsville has been hosting races for half a century and all the greats have raced there over the years. It really is a throw back in a lot of ways. It’s a flat short track like most of us grew up racing on. It’s tight, flat and fenders definitely get used. It always puts on an exciting show for the fans and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. As a fan of the sport I don’t know how you can’t like Martinsville! And in a lot of ways it’s almost turned into the new go-to track for action and excitement. It doesn’t have the high banks like Bristol, but the racing, bumping, banging and all the fun stuff the fans look for has been every bit as good as anywhere we’ve gone the past few years.”

ON THE FINAL FOUR RACES: “It’s not over until it’s over, but from where we are sitting in points it would take a lot of unbelievably good luck for us and unbelievably bad luck for a lot of real good drivers that don’t often have bad luck. We still have our goals to accomplish. We’re going to go out every week and try to win races. We haven’t done that in a while and we need to get back to victory lane in one of these final four races. And we aren’t that far out of the top-five in points. If we can win a race and get back into the top-five from where we are right now that would be big for us to go into the offseason and get ready for 2014.”

NOTES:

· Wild Asphalt Testing: All three MWR NSCS teams tested at Texas Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. Clint Bowyer in the No. 15, Elliott Sadler in the No. 55 and Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 56. The test was previously scheduled for the week leading into Talladega, but rain cancelled the original test and the teams returned this week.

· MWR in 2014: On Monday, Oct. 14, MWR announced its reorganizational plan for 2014, highlighted by two full-time championship contending Sprint Cup teams with a third Sprint Cup entry will run a limited schedule for research and development. Scott Miller, the team’s executive vice president of competition, will continue his role as crew chief of the No. 55 team into the 2014 season

· MWR in 2013: MWR cars have combined for two wins (Truex Jr. – Sonoma; Vickers – Loudon-1), 19 top-five and 41 top-10 finishes. The three-car team has led 768 laps and won one pole award (M. Martin – Phoenix-1). Bowyer is eighth in points trailing Jimmie Johnson by 57 with four races remaining.

· Racing for a Cause: From now through December 31, 5-hour ENERGY will donate five cents from the sale of every limited edition, specially marked, bottle of raspberry flavored 5-hour ENERGY to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a national nonprofit education and support organization serving women and families affected by breast cancer. The minimum guaranteed donation is $75,000.

· Chassis: Primary chassis No. 786 is brand new to the No. 15 fleet. It has never raced.

MWR