Bowyer quiet, consistent in season-long grip of points

Clint Bowyer epitomized consistency in 2008, and the show he put on may be as close as we get to a wire-to-wire championship victory.

Bowyer slugged to a 25th-place finish in the opener at Daytona, but quickly made up for it. By the season's sixth race he was the points leader, and he never looked back -- Bowyer led the standings the final 30 races of the season.

Clint Bowyer had 29 top-10 finishes in 35 races last season.

That's not to say it wasn't close. Both Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards pulled to within a half-dozen points of the lead halfway through the year. But Bowyer's steady hand rode on. Only three times did he finish 20th or worse -- 25th was his worst performance -- and he finished every race.

His victory came early on at Bristol, in a rain-shortened event in which Bowyer openly admitted he didn't have the best car. He finished second four times. And in the final 11 races, Bowyer landed 10 top-10 finishes.

It almost wasn't enough. Bowyer held a 207-point lead on Edwards with seven races remaining. But a late-season flurry of three victories -- including Homestead -- and a second-place finish by Edwards made the final 21-point margin closer than anybody expected.

In those final seven races, Bowyer failed to lead a single lap. Turns out, he didn't have to. Having just to finish eighth or better in the finale, Bowyer came home fifth. It was a microcosmic display of his season -- nothing flashy, but solid enough to take home the hardware.

Emerson Radio 250 at Richmond International Raceway -- True, Bowyer won one race the whole season and this wasn't it. True, Edwards passed Bowyer late to win this race, and Bowyer fell to third. But in the big picture, Bowyer's domination at Richmond (he led 195 of 250 laps) and minimizing Edwards' point gain actually left Bowyer with his biggest lead of the season in the standings. He came to Richmond 204 ahead of Brad Keselowski (Edwards was third) and left RIR 207 up on Edwards -- vital points considering how the finale played out.

Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park -- To say Bowyer faltered down the stretch is a bit much, but Memphis was his biggest hiccup. Edwards cut 80 points off Bowyer's once-secure lead by winning the race as Bowyer struggled all day. Bowyer first had contact with Marcos Ambrose, then spun out on Lap 124 with awful handling issues. The 16th-place finish left Bowyer clinging to a 116-point lead in the standings with three races to go.

Race Video
• Sharpie Mini 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway