Around the Track: Atlanta

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer finished 23rd last week at Martinsville Speedway to slip a spot to 18th in the points standings.

Now he heads back to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where a late trip into the wall relegated him to a 27th-place finish after running around the top 15 most of the day.

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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.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time thinking about Juan Pablo Montoya when he makes his Busch Series debut at Memphis on Saturday.

Obviously, it's neat for him coming from Formula One over to our sport to drive the No. 42 car for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. He brings a lot to the table.

For the most part I'm going to be concentrating on the ones I have to worry about, the normal crowd like Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.

I'm sure Juan will do a good job, but I'm focused on the ones I know will be good.

This is going to be a tough transition for him. Getting in good equipment is going to help him considerably, but going from cars that have a tremendous amount of down force to cars that have little, it's just going to be a hard transition.

I'm sure there will be a lot more media there if the ARCA race at Talladega a few weeks ago is any indication. Hopefully, he'll take it over for us.

We've struggled to get wins this year in the Busch car. I thought we would have four or five by now, so hopefully we can get another one before the end of the year.

Sometimes I wish we'd go to a playoff system in the Busch Series like they have in the Cup Series. But Harvick has been so strong all year I don't think it would change it much.

Obviously, it would give me a new slate and new playing ground, but he's been so solid he would be hard to beat. He's the guy I expected to have to beat for a championship and that's the way it's been.

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 Chicago 38 9 270 running Loudon 31 27 307 running Pocono 14 41 194 running Indy 2 4 160 running The Glen 14 14 90 running Michigan 29 33 197 engine Bristol 27 38 415 running Fontana 3 3 250 running Richmond 16 12 400 running Loudon 18 24 299 running Dover 16 8 400 running Kansas 6 9 267 running 'Dega 32 35 63 accident Lowe's 8 23 329 running Martinsville 37 23 500 running

I'm looking forward to going back to Memphis. I had such an unbelievable race there last year. I crashed the car in qualifying, started dead last, led 134 laps and won the race.

It was an unbelievable task we overcame, and I hope we can get back to Victory Lane again.

It's going to be a tight schedule going back and forth between Atlanta and Memphis. We met and decided we would have to give up about an hour of Nextel Cup practice in Atlanta to make it.

I'm a little surprised some of the drivers in the Chase are willing to give up that time. But Denny Hamlin gave up some practice time at Pocono and it didn't seem to bother him because he came back and dominated the Cup race.

But I'd definitely say those guys in the Chase are worried about losing practice time. There's so much on the line.

Atlanta could be a good track for us. We ran well there in the spring before getting into the wall. You've got to have great balance in the car through a fuel run because the tires wear out pretty quickly.

It's a fun track to race on. You can run on the bottom down on the white line, up at the top and in the middle. You've got to free it up a little bit and hope your setup is right.

I went to Las Vegas on Tuesday with Richard Childress for a sponsor appearance. I can think of worse places to have to go. It is a long ways out there, though.

There were a lot of meetings and conferences, but you have time to stop by the casino tables right before you go to bed.

My schedule will be so busy this weekend I won't have time to stop for anything.