Bowyer relishes another top-10 finish

With a third-place finish in the Auto Club 400, Clint Bowyer headed for a place he hasn’t been in quite a while: A post-race press conference in the media center.

Brad Keselowski, who finished second, was the first to greet Bowyer. As the Stewart-Haas Racing driver made his way to the stage, Keselowski welcomed him with a joke:

"My man, Clint Bowyer," Keselowski said. "How long has it been since you've been in here after a race?"

There was no malice intended. It has been well documented how far out of the spotlight Bowyer has been for the past year, if not longer. He's been winless since 2013, which is also the last time he's finished higher than 19th in points. During his time spent HScott Motorsports last year, Bowyer earned just three top-10 finishes.

Bowyer broke his dry spell Sunday at Auto Club Speedway with his first top five since the summer race at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2015. The finish was also his second top 10 in five races with Stewart-Haas Racing.

"Just to have the organization behind me, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, my teammates," Bowyer said. "To have these teammates like this, at this point and everything I've been through, you know how fortunate you are when you get this opportunity. Gene Haas and Tony Stewart, getting out of the car and giving me this opportunity, just appreciative of everything."

Stewart was not only on the pit box but also on the 14 radio throughout the day. Although Bowyer was, of course, pumped up about his finish, Stewart offered a simple "good job" after the race.

"I know he's proud, and he was happy with that, but that's what you want in an owner," Bowyer said.

It was a winning effort from Bowyer and crew chief Mike Bugarewicz. Saturday night, Bowyer spent time in Bugarewicz's hotel room – something he says he's never done with a crew chief looking over all simulation, throttle traces and other possible notes ahead of race day.

A 17th starting spot soon became a minor detail as Bowyer had an average running position of 5.65 throughout the day. At one point, he found himself sitting as high as third. A rash of cautions inside the final 15 laps closed the gap to the leaders and suddenly put Bowyer in a position to perhaps challenge for the victory.

Not surprisingly, Bowyer was eager to try and make something happen.

"All day long the temptation was killing you," Bowyer said. "You could see it; you just couldn't get it. My car was so good, but it was teeter-tottering between too loose in and off the corner and too tight in the middle, and I wanted to free up to try to get it better across the center, but I was afraid to get too loose getting into (Turn) 3 because I was having trouble there on the long run.

"I was just kind of stuck in a box. This is one that you'll think about on the way home, should I have freed up a little bit, what would it have done? Would that give me an advantage that I didn't have? But that's racing. There's so much that goes into it."