DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, Clint Bowyer definitely didn't have numerology on his side.

If he had, on the date of 7/07/07 his No. 07 Chevrolet might have been marked for a Pepsi 400 victory.

As it was, warped numerology was in play, as Bowyer finished seventh. But the result was totally created by an onslaught of Hendrick and Roush horsepower more than any mystic quality.

And despite being part of a rollicking, 20-car battle to the finish that was certainly more fulfilling than his upside-down, in flames 18th-place finale at February's Daytona 500, there was little thrill in RCR land.

Bowyer's crew chief Gil Martin summed up everyone's feelings as he hustled from his pit box to the car, queued up in an inspection line in the far end of the garage.

"If we were to sit here talking about it and it was Tuesday, we'd be looking at the point sheet and we'd be pretty happy about that [finish]," Martin said. "But [Saturday night], it's a pretty sour sandwich to have a car that good [and not win]. But it's just Daytona."

Martin leads a team that has never been far out of the top 10 all season and currently sits 11th, 15 points out of 10th and 151 points clear of the first driver not currently qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, which happens to be race-winner Jamie McMurray.

The bitterness -- and Bowyer's dismay when he emerged from his motor coach to answer all questions before sent by golf cart to his plane -- came from the unlikely circumstances Bowyer faced on his way to the checkers.

Bowyer started 12th and quickly marched to the lead by Lap 18. He ultimately led a race-high 55 laps and couldn't believe his latest shot to win had evaded him, again.

"We needed a good points day to get us back in this thing but man I wanted to win that thing," Bowyer said. "I hate it for those guys [on the team].

"I wanted to win that thing for those guys so bad -- but we'll get one. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing. They can't keep it from us forever."

RCR's vice president of competition, Mike Dillon, is Bowyer's spotter and he knew what his driver had to work with.

"We had a car that could have won the race and unfortunately it just didn't shuffle out right for us," Dillon said. "We had a great night -- [Clint] was fast all weekend [but] you know how it is here in the draft, you've got to get shuffled right.

"You could say coming in here if can we get a top-10 we'd be pleased, but we had a car we could have won with so everybody is going to be a little bit disappointed. We'll take it and go to next week."

Near the mid-point of the race, Bowyer was on an 18-lap stint in the lead when all of a sudden his car shut off. By the time he figured out what had occurred, he had fallen to 19th on the racetrack.

"We were out in the lead and the ignition box, of all things, just cut out," Bowyer said, struggling to find a highway comparison.

Lap-by-Lap

Jamie McMurray overcame a penalty to battle through the field for his last-lap victory at Daytona. Read how he did it.

• Complete story, click here
• Video highlights, click here

"Well, throwing up is what I wanted to do," Bowyer said before unleashing an enormous laugh. "I didn't know what happened -- it's like there's no way [to compare]. I guess being in California traffic nose-to-tail at 80 mph and your car quits and you're in the middle lane. It took me a while to figure out what happened. We hit the other ignition box and it took off again. That was kind of a bummer -- it got us set back."

His low point of the race, 24th, came 30 laps later on a pit cycle, but he kept digging and got back to the lead on Lap 142.

"I never thought in a million years we'd get back up there," Bowyer said. "We were so tight in traffic. We got a couple good pushes and I got up through them again. We get back in the lead and I'm thinking, 'Man, we might have them after all.'"

But two restarts in the last 18 laps were Bowyer's undoing. On the penultimate restart with 13 laps remaining, four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets, plus a couple Roush Fenway Racing Fords, were lined up behind him.

"That was pretty sickening," Bowyer said of the sight. "We just got too far behind -- had too many teammates behind us, teamed up on us there at the end and they just went around me."

Three laps after the restart, with 10 to go, Bowyer was third, running on the low line and in the middle of an absolute hornet's nest.

"It was very dicey," Bowyer said. "Everybody was going for broke and it always ends up that way. You ride around here to get to the last five laps. You can't push it that hard the whole race, but everybody does stuff to get their cars to run a little bit better. But those last five laps, hey -- the only way you're going to win the race is just go for it.

"We had a shot; we just had too many teammates running behind us. We about got there. But it was a good effort, a good day for us."