Around the Track: 'Dega

Strong run at Phoenix has Bowyer searching for more of the same

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer climbed a spot to 12th in points after Saturday's season-best fifth at Phoenix International Raceway.

Bowyer also led three times for 21 laps, the first time he's been atop the leaderboard in a Cup race.

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Now he heads to Talladega Superspeedway, where he'll make his Cup debut on the 2.66-mile restrictor-plate track. He's qualified well in two Busch Series events at the Alabama facility, starting from the pole in 2004 and fifth in 2005. He finished 22nd and 19th.

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.

That was an awesome run at Phoenix. Now I need to carry it over to Talladega, a track that can be a lot of fun but one that can bite you if you're not careful.

You just have to keep your nose clean and do what we did at Daytona, where we finished sixth. The difference is handling is not nearly as big of an issue as it is at Daytona.

The guys that can draft well are the guys that can run really good. That's why Dale Earnhardt Jr. [five wins] always run good at Talladega, where as he doesn't always run as good at Daytona.

It'll be interesting to see how things go since they've taken the plate out of the front bumper to try to keep guys from bump-drafting so hard. It's a step in the right direction for NASCAR. At least they're trying to do something after Daytona, where it got pretty rough.

Tony Stewart was pretty outspoken at Daytona, saying somebody was going to get killed if NASCAR didn't do something. I'm a rookie. I don't get to say stuff like that. I just go with the flow.

Credit: Autostock

Clint Bowyer 2006 Nextel Cup stats Track St. Fin. Laps Status Daytona 37 6 203 running Fontana 32 14 251 running Las Vegas 20 15 270 running Atlanta 16 27 324 running Bristol 27 29 495 running Martinsville 42 22 496 running Texas 12 19 333 running Phoenix 8 5 312 running CAREER NIGHT AT PHOENIX When Clint Bowyer gave up the lead to Tony Stewart at Phoenix, the only thing he wanted to do was get it back.  •   Complete story, click here

But running well at Daytona gives me confidence we can go to another restrictor-plate track and do well. That confidence also can bite you just as quick.

The experience I gained at Talladega in the Busch Series should help. I've seen both sides of life there. In 2005, I got turned around on the last lap. I had my first top-five in the Busch Series going and ended up crashing.

Still, I had a good run and learned a lot of stuff I hope to put to good use this weekend.

But the Cup Series is different. These guys tend to push these rookies around a little bit and want to show them who the boss is pretty quickly. They don't give us much slack.

I want to gain some respect out there, just like we did at Daytona where we started near the back and moved our way forward.

I still have a lot to learn about the draft. You get that run on those cars and when you get that momentum the guys that are good keep it going all the way up to the front. They don't get stalled.

You can get a run and get up behind the wrong car and have to check up, but the guys that know what they're doing avoid that. Watching guys keep that momentum, gaining 10 or 15 spots on one big run, that's what you've got to do to be good.

It's all about being patient and keeping out of trouble. The Big One is going to happen. You just hope you don't get caught up in it -- or cause it.

Attitude goes a long way; having that confidence. When you go to a racetrack with confidence, knowing you're going to do good and that you can stand up to the best of them, nine times out of 10 you can make it work.

The atmosphere around the track is awesome. It can get pretty wild as I've seen driving from the hotel to the track. It's incredible how many people there are and how far out they camp.

That's the one track where drivers that stay at the track in the motorhome stay cooped up. You don't venture into the infield too often. I've done it a few times. You see a little of everything there, good and bad.

But anytime there is that kind of atmosphere you want to be the man on the track.