Around the Track: Dover

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer had trouble in the pits for the second consecutive race and finished 19th in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

He stayed 15th in points, but lost 69 to leader Jimmie Johnson and is now 139 points out of the top 10 that qualify for the Chase.

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Now Bowyer travels to the Monster Mile at Dover, where team owner Richard Childress won three times with Dale Earnhardt.

It will be Bowyer's first trip to Dover in a Cup car. He finished 19th and second a year ago in the Busch Series.

Bowyer: That was some way to spend my 27th birthday, hanging out at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Tuesday for a Car of Tomorrow test.

No Clint time for me.

This is the first time I've had a chance to come to the track and learn about the new car. It is my birthday, but it's just another day in the racing world.

It's important to learn all you can about this thing, because it looks like they're gonna start using it next year whether people like it or not.

They're making gains from what I've seen and heard. We're a step ahead of most of the competition at Richard Childress Racing because we've been there with the program from the beginning.

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There still are some things I dislike about the car. The splitter on the front could be somewhat of a problem because it looks like it could break so easily, and you could spend three or four laps fixing it.

I don't know enough about the rear wing. My teammate, Jeff Burton, has been testing it a lot. He seems to like it, but to me it looks pretty goofy.

I know some people say it's similar to what they ran years ago, but if you look at the Indianapolis 500 there were only seven cars on the lead lap. The only thing that made it a good race was that one pass at the end that happened to be for the win.

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 Talladega 15 40 16 crash Richmond 20 10 400 running Darlington 3 23 365 running Lowe's 15 19 399 running MORE ABOUT CLINT •   10 Questions: Clint Bowyer

They've got wings and splitters, too. Yeah, I'm concerned about it.

I'm looking forward to Dover. We almost won the Busch race there in September. It's like a big Bristol, just a big fishbowl. It's a lot of fun to race on, fast with high banks.

I ran my first race at Dover last June and we were terrible, but we bounced back pretty good in the second race. Between the races I figured out how to get around the track, at least that's what my crew chief told me.

The hardest thing about tracks like Bristol and Dover is when they get tangled up in front of you, you'd better pick a good line to get through and hope it's the good line.

If you choose poorly, your day can be over in a hurry.

I can't imagine driving with a broken shoulder blade like Tony Stewart has. To do that on any of these tracks is amazing, but they don't call Dover the old Monster Mile for nothing. It's a mean racetrack and you've got to get up on the wheel pretty hard.

Tony will be sore after this race, that's for sure. I don't know the extent of his injury, but if anybody can do it he can.

I've never had to drive with an injury from an accident, at least on four wheels. I had quite a few on two during the old motorcross days.

The last two weeks we've had a couple of slipups in the pits to set us back, but that's part of racing. There's a lot of pressure and demand on those guys to not make mistakes.

And they do so much right. It's just unfortunate the only time you notice them is when they make a mistake.

The good news is we were fast enough to be a top-10 car in both races without the mistakes. It's just hard to come back once you get a lap down. You can't drive right back to where you were because there is so much competition out there.

We're coming to the hot part of the schedule now. The heat definitely will wear on you, especially when you're running both the Cup and Busch series. You have to stay physically fit.

When they ask you if it's going to be tough at the beginning of the year it's easy to answer yes. When you get to June and July when it's close to 100 degrees you start to change your mind.

The main thing is you've got to stay in the helmet. You can't run back to your motor home and sit in the air conditioning for four or five hours before you get back in the heat. Stay in the element and let your body get acclimated to it.

Everybody is in full-court press to get points back for the championship Chase. There's no looking back. You've just got to stay focused on what's ahead and not get ahead of yourself.

If you go all out at a track at Dover it can take a bite out of you pretty quickly. You've got to get a good handling racecar and let the track come to you.

If you do that you'll be really good.