Often overlooked, Bowyer fine with sleeper role again (cont'd)

Childress was serious, though. He spotted something special in Bowyer.

"I saw a young man that had a desire to win that reminded me of another driver I had for a quite a few years who started out with nothing and became one of the greatest race drivers. And that was Dale Earnhardt," Childress said. "Clint probably reminds me as much of his style of anybody who has come along since then."

Eventually Bowyer did take the call, and the rest is history -- or history in the making. Childress insists that the best is yet to come from Bowyer, who is entering his third Cup season.

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"I don't think Clint has even reached his stride," Childress said. "I think you're gonna see even more out Clint and [crew chief] Gil Martin this year, by them working together."

The relationship between the 28-year-old Bowyer and Martin, who have worked together since Bowyer's runner-up finish in points in the Busch Series in 2005, has continued to evolve over the last three years.

"Well, he's pretty old and pretty crotchety and set in his ways," Bowyer joked of Martin, 47. "But that's what is so fun. He's a racer, man, and it's hard because chemistry is such a big thing. We probably learned it the hard way and it's something we're getting better at. There were times when something tripped my trigger and I was mad in the car, and then I would come to realize that his trigger was tripped and he was mad, too.

"We've learned to feed off each other. That's a big thing, having that confidence in each other. I know I said that first year we were together that I had all the confidence in the world that -- but now I can be honest about it. It takes some time. Now I truly do have all the confidence in the world in him.

"He could say something like, 'Man, I know he's not tight. There's no way that can be tight. He must be doing something wrong.' But Gil won't do that. Now he's going to go to work on it and fix it. Then we might come back and I'll be like, 'Whoa. That's not right. Let's go back to how it was. Maybe I have to adjust my driving style.' But we work it out together."

The increase in level of confidence between Bowyer, his crew chief, his teammates and his owner spreads in all directions at RCR. When Bowyer captured the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire to open last year's 10-race Chase, it was his first and, to date, only Cup victory.

He used that as a springboard to challenge the big boys from Hendrick for the title, at least in theory and for a while.

"I felt like given the right opportunity, if they stubbed their toe, yes, I thought we could make an honest run at them for it," Bowyer said. "But we were just behind and it kind of stayed that way. Then it got to the end and we made a couple of mistakes.

"That's what we have to learn from. A tire got loose in one race -- and that's not the tire changer's fault; that's a team mistake. And then we had a tailpipe break in the last race at Homestead. Those are the kinds of mistakes in a chase for a championship that you can't afford to have. But other than those two things, I would say our Chase effort would have won the championship in a lot of years. So I'm proud of what we accomplished in only our second year [at the Cup level], and I think we will only get better."

Burton said Bowyer's maturity as a driver began to show last season. Of the top 49 drivers who competed at the Cup level in 2007, Bowyer and Harvick were the only two who were running at the finish of all 36 races. In addition to his one win, Bowyer also won two poles while registering five top-five and 17 top-10 finishes.

"I think he's become more mature, and because of that he's able to recognize the situation he's in much better than he did before," Burton said. "When I race with him or watch him driving, I see the same guy I saw two or three years ago, to be quite honest. His experience now enables him to recognize the situation he's in and then do the appropriate thing based on the situation he's in. Rather than do something and hope it's right, now he does something with much more confidence because he's had that experience.

"Experience is an invaluable thing. So I don't really think he's changed as a driver, but he's matured as a driver."

The maturation, coupled with confidence and added experience, could mean Bowyer running up front more this season -- and finally having more folks ask him questions about it. He said he is ready to assume a greater role in the RCR, and the sport's, spotlight.

"We had an awesome year last year. We learned a lot. I learned a lot," Bowyer said. "We gained in a lot of different areas with the car. We became a consistent car week in and week out. We've just got to pick it up a little bit more, and I think we can creep our way into that pretty elite group of drivers."