Clint Bowyer heads to Bristol Motor Speedway

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry driver Clint Bowyer heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for this weekend’s 500-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a 113 point lead over 11th place in the championship standings with three races remaining before the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Bowyer needs to finish 12th or better with no laps led, 13th or better with one lap led or 14th or better with the most laps led Saturday to clinch a berth in the NASCAR playoff. The Emporia, Kan. native has never finished outside the top-10 at Bristol since joining MWR in 2012. Bowyer also finished in the top-five in two of the last three race scoring the most points of any driver.

BRISTOL: “It’s just one of my favorite racetracks – it always has been. Whether you get caught up in something or not, whether you get a bad finish or a good finish – it’s just a coliseum. There is no better way of displaying our product of racing then they do it at Bristol. Period. It’s the best you can ever have of our kind of car racing – on a short track in that bull ring like that. For a fan you don’t get a better bang for your buck anywhere.”

DO YOU LIKE WHERE BRISTOL IS ON THE SCHEDULE: “It’s a game changer. Everybody can complain about the schedule, and there is definitely it seems like places on the schedule where you might like to see some change, but every time you take something out it takes away from somewhere else. Certainly if you put a Bristol in the Chase to try and shake things up then you don’t have that race leading in to the cutoff. This is typically kind of a down time of the year for us and it’s not right now. The race for the Chase is on in a big way and could be shook up in an even bigger way at Bristol.”

ON POTENTIALLY CLINCHING A CHASE BERTH: “Right now it’s nothing more than a little bit of a pat on the back for being able to accomplish the consistency it takes to run up front during the regular season. In a few weeks’ time the points are going to reset and it’s not going to matter where I am in the standings at that point.”

Michael Waltrip Racing