Around the Track: Pocono Raceway

Rookie Bowyer finished 21st in debut race at track in June

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer finished 27th in Sunday's race at New Hampshire International Raceway, but maintained his position of 16th in the point standings.

Bowyer was riding 15th with two laps remaining when he was involved in an accident with Brian Vickers that set him spinning down the back straightaway.

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Now Bowyer heads to Pocono Raceway, where in June he was 21st in his first trip to the 2.5-mile track.

Bowyer: Denny Hamlin proved at the first Pocono race that you don't have to have experience at a track to win if you've got a good car.

Not taking anything away from that team, but it would have been hard to mess that one up. That car was determined to win. It had the fender ripped, a flat tire and spun out.

It didn't matter. That car was dominant.

We've all had a car like that. For whatever reason, you always try to make it the best you can but you never hit the setup. Then when you finally do hit the setup you can't do anything wrong.

It's an awesome experience, but it doesn't happen every day. The guys that are really successful hit it more often than not.

Experience still is important. But having a good handling car and luck -- there was a lot of luck that day for Denny coming back from that spinout -- also plays a big role.

Rookie Standings Nextel Cup '06 (thru 19 races) Pos. Driver Behind 1. D. Hamlin -- 2. C. Bowyer 34 3. R. Sorenson 33 4. M. Truex Jr. 57 5. J.J. Yeley 59 6. D. Stremme 82 7. B. Sherman 167

Denny kind of took over the rookie race around that point, getting himself in position for the top 10 and the championship Chase. The two weeks before New Hampshire we'd turned that around and were going in the right direction.

I still believe the battle for top rookie honors will go down to the finish. But right now you've got to stay focused on the Chase until you can't get in. It's time to get as many top-10s and top-fives as we can.

It helps going back to a track for the second time. I learned a lot the first time I was at Pocono and I'm sure we'll put forth a lot better effort. At least we have a starting place with the setup that worked best for us.

It always goes back to the same thing. There are three distinctively different corners and you've got to be set up to handle all three.

It seems like Turn 3 is the trickiest. You can get in too hard and get in a lot of trouble.

Inside the Numbers Bowyer's 2006 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 Dover 22 17 400 running Pocono 42 21 200 running Michigan 9 39 86 running Infineon 28 16 110 running Daytona 30 10 160 running Chicagoland 38 9 270 running Loudon 31 27 307 running

I'm sure Denny will bring back the same car he ran with in June, just like we will. Sometimes that works, but more often than not it doesn't. Track surface and a lot of things change from one race to the other.

I'm not saying they can't repeat, but I'll be tough.

For the most part, all of the rookies aren't really rookies anymore. We've been through more than half of a season and people know what to expect from us on the track.

Now when you come up on somebody and you're two- or three-tenths faster than they are, they'll move over for you like a lot of people did for Denny in the first Pocono race.

We still make some hiccups here and there as a young team, and they show. But you can't blame them on being a rookie anymore. We're probably beyond expectations right now, and we've just got to keep it together.

We started the season with a goal of top 15 in points, and we're only one away from that, so things are looking good.

It should be a pretty uneventful weekend. There's not a lot to do around Pocono. You kind of hibernate in the motor home and get out of there as quickly as you can.

The first trip I played a lot of PlayStation. I was pretty bored the whole weekend.

It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. That's not my favorite part of the country. It's pretty woodsy up there. I'm from Kansas. I'm used to seeing your neighbors, and they're two or three miles down the road at Pocono.