Around the Track: 'Dega

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer finished ninth in last week's race at Kansas Speedway to maintain his spot at 16th in the points standings.

It was his second consecutive top-10 finish and third in the last five weeks.

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Now he heads to Talladega Superspeedway, where he finished 40th after getting caught up in an early wreck during the May race. It was the first time in six restrictor-plate races, including the Busch Series, that Bowyer failed to finish inside the top 10.

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.

Bowyer: Given the choice between driving a Nextel Cup car and a golf ball, I'll take my chances with the car any day.

I played in an American Cancer Society charity golf event at Medinah Country Club outside of Chicago last week. I'm not a really big golfer. My handicap is me. The only time I golf is for something like that.

I heard there's lot of history [home of the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championship] behind Medinah. I know a lot of people would kill to play there, but I'd never even heard of it to be honest.

All I know is we struggled and lost a lot of balls. Anytime I go to a country club that is nice like that one it seems like it's just a lot harder.

A trip around the course with me is humorous, that's for sure. I don't take it seriously like a lot of people. I look at it as a way to go out and start a relationship with a sponsor or people on the team.

We definitely played best ball at Medinah. I'd have been in trouble if we weren't. We played my ball once or twice, though.

Inside the Numbers Bowyer's 2006 stats Track Start Finish Status Daytona 37 6 running Fontana 32 14 running Las Vegas 20 15 running Atlanta 16 27 running Bristol 27 29 running Martinsville 42 22 running Texas 12 19 running Phoenix 8 5 running Talladega 15 40 crash Richmond 20 10 running Darlington 3 23 running Lowe's 15 19 running Dover 22 17 running Pocono 42 21 running Michigan 9 39 running Infineon 28 16 running Daytona 30 10 running Chicago 38 9 running Loudon 31 27 running Pocono 14 41 running Indy 2 4 running The Glen 14 14 running Michigan 29 33 engine Bristol 27 38 running Fontana 3 3 running Richmond 16 12 running Loudon 18 24 running Dover 16 8 running Kansas 6 9 running Smooth sailing?Jeff Burton sizes up the impact of the new surface at 'Dega Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

My strength on the course is driving the golf cart. The competitive side in me doesn't want to be completely horrible. You've got to be able to hit the ball some, but since I can't do that I have to have fun with it.

It's the first time I've ever had a caddie. And that was the other thing about it I didn't like. We had to walk. After a long weekend at the track it wasn't that much fun to have to walk the whole course.

I think it was like three and a half miles if you hit it straight, so I walked about five miles.

I learned a lot from the caddy, though, and actually made him hit my ball a few times.

He was telling me how good he was, and after I shanked one off into the woods I told him to hit the next shot. He absolutely killed it, but it went off in the woods, too. I made fun of him, saying, "Hell, you ain't any better than I am.''

Then he hit another ball and lived up to his reputation after that.

I know it's not legal to have somebody else hit your ball [he laughs after recent allegations of cheating against two of his RCR teammates], but there definitely is a lot of cheating going on in team golf. Golf may be a gentleman's game, but the ones that win usually are the ones that cheat.

I don't really keep score. Like I said, I'm not a big golfer or a big fan of it. I just go out because I have to. I only play like two or three times a year.

I can't wait to get to Talladega and all the noise and craziness. That's where I'm most comfortable.

The golf course and track are definitely two different worlds. Talladega, it's a different place period. It's definitely Southern.

I can't wait to see the new asphalt, and hopefully it isn't a recipe for disaster. We'll probably race closer and harder and maybe have more potential for the big wreck.

But the paving was something that needed to be done, and obviously from what I've heard they did a good job on it.

I love plate racing. It's wild and wide open, hold on and hope for the best. The one time I got bit by it I was holding back. I was going to take the Dale Jarrett approach and be there at the end of the spring race and they wrecked right in front of me.

From now on it's full-bore ahead and hope for the best.

I don't care how crazy it gets, it's a lot safer than me on the golf course. I can hit it good off the tee, but once you start getting closer to the green I tend to put it back and forth over the green a few times before I give up.

My caddy was less than impressed, that's for sure. He's caddied for a lot of pros, and then he had me throwing clubs and not taking it very seriously.