Bowyer hopes NHMS race will serve as another jolt (cont'd)

Bower's consistency shines in the Nationwide Series, where he has a win, seven top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in the first 17 races.

Bowyer's fortunes have fluctuated more radically on the Sprint Cup side of the garage, where finishes of 36th (Dover), 39th (Pocono) and 26th (Michigan) knocked him from fifth in the standings back to 12th.

He worked some strategy with crew chief Gil Martin last weekend at Infineon Raceway to change running deep in the field into a fourth-place finish. It moved him to 10th on the chart, but he isn't breathing easily.

"On the Cup side, we're on the bubble, man," Bowyer said. "We're 10th, but not too far out of 12th. So hopefully with a good run [Sunday, we'll get better in the points].

"Right now, we just can't panic. We've got to be consistent and if we can rattle off seven more top-10s in a row I think that will put us in the [Chase] and that's what we've got to focus on, just trying to be consistent and solid."

That's what Bowyer displayed between this season's fourth race, at Atlanta, and race 10, at Richmond, which Bowyer won from the 31st starting position. After that, Bowyer was a season-best fourth in points. He draws great comfort from what his team was able to do in that seven-race stretch of top-10s.

"Absolutely -- that's what you look for in a race team," Bowyer said. "I certainly want to win a championship one of these days and that's what it takes. The bad races you've got to be able to make good ones and get a decent finish out of it. The good ones, you've got to go out and win the race and run up front.

"But consistency still wins championships. I'm more proud of rattling off those seven top-10s in a row earlier in the season than [anything else] because that's what it takes to win championships. If we can just get back to what we were doing and what we're capable of doing we'll be just fine."

He'll also pray for clear weather on Sunday. After rain disrupted Friday, both Saturday practices were completed per the schedule.

"It's disruptive and it's quite a bit different on the track, where you don't slip and slide around like you typically do," Bowyer said, forecasting a possibly difficult racing environment on Sunday. "You've got to drive the cars a little bit snugger [tending to push] and pull on the wheel and it don't seem to fall off as bad.

"Normally [the tires] fall off quite a bit here and [this weekend] they just don't seem like they're falling off at all, and I think that's due in part to the cool weather."

Sunday's forecast calls for a high temperature of 85 degrees and a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms.