Around the Track: Atlanta

Busy times for Bowyer don't affect his performance on the track

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer is seventh in points after leaving Las Vegas with his third consecutive top-15 finish.

Now he heads to Atlanta, where he finished 21st in each of his two Busch Series starts.

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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.

The more success I have the busier my life gets. It seems like we have meetings just to have more meetings.

I got so busy last week at Las Vegas that I almost missed driver introductions for the Busch Series race talking about the setup and what needed to be done on the Cup car.

The good part of everything that's happening to me is obviously getting your name out there and getting exposure. The negative part is you get less Clint time.

But it all comes with the job. I definitely wouldn't trade this for anything in the world. It's what you work your whole life for. You've just got to learn to cope with the rest of the stuff.

It hasn't helped that I've been working to complete my house. I had been renting a house from [owner] Richard Childress' son-in-law. I bought the land behind him and there was a house on the land and we completely went in and tore out all the walls and completely re-did everything from the ground up.

I had a contractor to help me, but still you've got to pick out colors and do this and do that. Anybody that's built a house knows all the work that goes into it.

The biggest thing was trying to move in. Although it was only about 600 yards away from where I was living, you had to box things up and get everything ready to move. I'm learning the hard way I don't have time to do it myself.

The best part is it's a lot closer to my go-kart track in the backyard. It's where I want to be when I'm not at the track. When I come home it's Clint time.

	Clint Bowyer finished 15th at Las Vegas. Credit: Autostock
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Everything on the track is going well. A lot of people might be surprised at where we are in the points standings, but I'm not really. I've got a good crew and I believe in them as much as they believe in me. We're gelling well as a team and we've been consistent, and the consistency is paying off.

We just can't afford to make mistakes. I made a little bit of a mistake at Las Vegas last week that probably cost us a top-10 finish. We were running really good and I went out and hit the wall and knocked the right front fender in.

We were fixing to go a lap down and caught a caution, which was good for us. We were able to overcome some adversity there and have a good finish [15th].

We've been conservative across the board so far. There's no need to be going all out right now. We need to get a good points base established, and that's what we've done.

We're sitting seventh in points and we've gotten things rolling in the right direction. We can afford to take a few more chances now, get the car freed up so it will run more up front.

We know we can run up there. We've been marching up there slowly through the first three races, so we know we're capable.

Some of the rookies have been accused of being over aggressive. I learned through the years that nine times out of 10 when a rookie gets in trouble it's because he's in unchartered territory and you get a little too aggressive and usually end up messing up.

We're taking baby steps and trying to be there at the end of the season when we need to be there. We're looking at the big picture.

Now we go to Atlanta, where it's tough to be conservative. It's a big, fast track where you have to run wide open. They say it's the fastest track on the circuit and it is that. You've got to let it all hang out.

Carl Edwards won the race last year passing Jimmie Johnson on the outside of the last lap. He was up in the marbles. He was loose. But he never took his foot off the gas and it paid off. It's a track where you have to just go for it.

There aren't any really difficult parts of the track. It's a racer's track. For the most part everybody enjoys it. It's a track where you can at least make passes and run two- and three-wide, where you can run next to the wall or down on the line.

If a car is not handling, you can move around and find a place where it is handling.

Hopefully, we will qualify better here and not have to play catch-up the whole race. It's a track where you just have to grit your teeth and go for it.

I know it's been a good track for Richard Childress Racing. It's where Kevin Harvick got his first Cup win [2001] and where Richard has won nine times. Who knows, maybe it'll be where I get my first Cup win.

We're ready to take that next step forward. We can definitely get the job done if we get in the right position. You've just got to take baby steps and keep learning from the things we're doing.

Like I said, we're looking at the big picture, and that's being in the top 10 at the end of the year.