| March 15, 2006
11:25 AM EST (16:25 GMT)
FONTANA, Calif. -- Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer is coming off an impressive sixth-place finish in his first Daytona 500. Now he heads to California, where in two Busch Series races he has a pole and two top-five finishes on the two-mile, D-shaped track, for Saturday's Busch race and Sunday's Cup race. In Jack Daniel's Around the Track, Bowyer addresses each week's venue as well as his philosophies on racing and life in general around NASCAR.  | | |  | CLINT BOWYER | |
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Clint Bowyer: The first time I ever raced Mark Martin was last year in the Busch Series race in Fontana. I blew by him early and I thought I was going somewhere. Then with about 50 laps to go he blew back by me to win the race while I finished fourth. That was kind of the turning point in my year, getting to race veterans like him. I learned a lot and consider it a feather in my cap to do that. I really like Fontana. It's a neat racetrack and I've always run well there. I'm looking forward to both races. The Busch car will be good, and for what we learned at Las Vegas our Cup car will be good, too. It's a fast track, and I like a fast racetrack. It's a little bit different in the corners from one end to the other. One end has a little bit more banking, a little bit more speed in (Turns) 1 and 2. Turn 4 is a little bit flatter. You've got to let the car dance a little bit. But it's a fun track, a beautiful facility and a strong fan base. Not much changes after the race begins. Some say it's boring. That just makes you work that much harder in practice to get a good hotrod. You have to have a car that's freed up. You can't just be comfortable all the time on tracks like that. The car that's a little bit free and hanging it out on the edge, that's usually the car that prevails. You get into Turn 1 really fast. You've got to pull on the wheel real hard. That's sometimes a recipe for disaster if you're a little too loose on entry. Other than that, it's fairly simple. Again, you've got to have a really good balance on your car and have your car handling good to be good there. Driving both races helps. With temperature, the track changes from day to day. Being on that track that day before the Cup race and getting used to those circumstances, it helps. One thing we all like is it's close to Hollywood. I didn't get to visit last year, but I'm obviously in a more high-profile deal with this race team. That's where it's all at out there as far as Hollywood. It's neat to see those people come and enjoy what we do. We all enjoy the shows they put on, and it's neat that they enjoy what we do. There's a big difference in the fans out there. They're not what you would consider normal in the NASCAR mold. The fans we have here in the South are very loyal. That's not to say they're not loyal. It's just different on the West Coast. It's neat to see the different kind of people. A lot of people are in the infield. They have a sponsor thing in the middle where there are a lot of suites. That's what I meant about the fans being different. They don't enjoy camping out for a week in a tent and sitting in the blazing sun to watch a race for three or four hours. They like the indoors, that air conditioning and to have that glass separating them from the track. Even though it's a different kind of person out there, they're still the same quality of people. This is where everybody will find out how good they are. Daytona, you've got to be good and it's a race you want to win, but it's a bit of a crapshoot. But California is a lot like most of the tracks. If you're good on a track like that you're going to be good in the points standings. I'm really looking forward to seeing just how good we are. We had a really good test in Vegas, and we're optimistic about our chances. | 
