Another late surge comes up just short for Bowyer

For the second consecutive week, Clint Bowyer's frantic charge to runner-up in the waning laps of a Monster Energy Series race wasn't enough.

At Sonoma, Bowyer was over eight seconds behind teammate Kevin Harvick. Saturday night in Daytona he nipped Paul Menard at the finish line, having run out of time to challenge Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

"This bridesmaid deal sucks," said Bowyer, who now has three second-place finishes this season. "I want to win. We're in this business to win. That's what Tony (Stewart) and Gene (Haas) pay me to do."

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Still, Bowyer knows his No. 14 team is knocking on the door. It's only a matter of time before he and crew chief Mike Bugarewicz bust it down.

Bowyer has been second or third in four of the season's 17 races. With seven top 10s and just one DNF (the Daytona 500), Bowyer's average finish is 12.9. While in a position to make the playoffs, Bowyer is 10th in points which puts him near the tail end of the playoff grid. But if there is such a thing as momentum, Bowyer is hoping to ride it not only into the post-season but victory lane sometime over the next nine weeks.

"It's definitely a momentum thing," Bowyer said of his Daytona run. "Look at the last two weeks, we've been second, runner-up. Second sucks, but it's better than third, you know? We finished second two weeks in a row, so that's a huge confidence booster for our team, but nonetheless, the pressure cooker is turning up.

"You're sitting there looking up there at that green-white-checker coming to the green (restart), and you're thinking, 'Oh, no, somehow, some way, I've got to get up there and keep one of those guys that are going to be first-time winners out of this thing.' That's real, it's alive, and it's something you're going to have to pay attention to.

"You hope to keep riding this wave and turn one of those seconds into a win."