Around the Track: Bristol

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer was headed for a third-place finish last weekend at Michigan International Speedway when his engine blew with two laps remaining to leave him 33rd.

Instead of closing in on 14th in points and narrowing the gap on Denny Hamlin [8th] for top rookie honors, he fell to 19th.

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Now Bowyer heads to Bristol Motor Speedway, where he finished five laps down in 29th in the season's fifth 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.

We had a heck of a mess going on the first Bristol race.

We got a lap down early, got our lap back and then got caught in the pits under caution when the green fell and lost our lap again.

It was kind of a nightmare.

But that's kind of what you expect at Bristol. It's a wild place to drive, whether you're a rookie or a veteran. It's the Saturday Night Special. Everything a fan could ever ask for you'll see there.

Out there by yourself the track is difficult to get around. It's just so tight. There's just no room and you come off the corners and the walls are right there.

You take a tremendous amount of speed in the middle of the corners because of the banking. Coming off you get to the throttle quicker than any other track anyway.

Yes, it's a tricky racetrack, but it's also a lot of fun if you allow it.

Inside the Numbers Bowyer's 2006 stats Track Start Finish 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 Pocono 14 41 194 running Indy 2 4 160 running W. Glen 14 14 90 running Michigan 29 33 197 engine

Obviously, anything can happen. You can get caught up in somebody else's mess, you can get jammed up and get in the back of somebody or somebody can get in the back of you.

You've just got to be heads-up the whole time you're out there and be very cautious of who you're around and what surroundings you're in and stay out of trouble.

When I say watch who you're around, that isn't aimed at anybody in particular. It might be somebody that has gotten real loose or is racing too hard. Or somebody might be blocking somebody and nine times out of ten the person behind gets frustrated and get antsy.

If somebody is racing a guy in front of them a little too hard and looks like they're going to move them, you've got to be looking ahead and be ready for it when things get bottled up.

You can get around people without giving them a nudge. My teammate, Kevin Harvick, is probably the best at it as far as passing.

You've got to time it to where you're there underneath the other car when they come off the corner. Even then you might not be in position to pass. But if you're in position and if they let up the least little bit you've got to be there for the taking.

There's a lot more banging than on most tracks. You've got to expect the worst at all times at that place, and you can't let your emotions get the best of you.

About the time that happens you end up getting wrecked.

That happened to me in the first race. I got in the back of somebody. It was just impatience, and it's easy to get that way. Sometimes you don't mean to get in the back of people, but you're racing hard and get position to pass them clean and things happen.

It's all the nature of the beast. Don't get me wrong. It's a cool racetrack.

Night races are particularly fun. I raced the Busch car there last year. It adds another element of excitement. It reminds you of the way things were back home racing under the lights on Saturday night.

I'd rank this race as the second to third biggest race to win on the circuit. Everybody wants to go to Bristol and win the night race.

A win sure would help this team, because last weekend was really frustrating.

We looked like we were going to finish third easily and the motor expired with two laps remaining. My engine guy told me the last engine that team blew up was 2004.

We're second to none at RCR in that category, so you consider yourself lucky it's been that long. But it's still frustrating.

My engine problem was totally different than what happened to teammate Jeff Burton earlier in the race. His was a part failure.

The frustrating part was we thought we were starting to turn the corner after finishing fourth at Indianapolis and 14th at Watkins Glen.

You hate to use bad luck as an excuse, and I don't want to use that. But with any luck at all we'd be sitting 13th or 14th in points right now.

Lady Luck is not on our side at the moment, but every racer has gone through it and when the slump is over you sure are glad.