Bowyer fights his emotions sitting outside the Chase (cont'd)

For the first time in three years, Bowyer's faced with the unwieldy task of racing hard without having a championship goal.

"It's going to be hard, because I know that these last 10 race tracks are good tracks for us," Bowyer said. "I look forward to these last 10 and they always seem to work to our hand -- to my hand -- for being good tracks for me. Getting the Chase started off on the right foot was always my strong point.

“

It's hard to swallow, hard to take in. You work hard and you're very proud of your team and their hard work that they've put into a year and when it doesn't go according to plan it's frustrating and hard to take for everybody.

”

-- CLINT BOWYER

"It's no different, now. I want to win a race, to run up front and to build some confidence and momentum. Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, General Mills -- as many years as they've been in this sport they've never won a race, and I set out this year to win a race. We found ourselves behind, but we've been running a lot better of late and as an [RCR] group we're running better so I feel like we can win one of these last 10 races and that's going to be important."

Maybe the biggest part of what's been a generally shocking year for RCR, which after placing multiple teams in the Chase for the past three years is shut out this season, has been how Bowyer and Wilson have meshed.

"That's what I like about Shane -- he helps me help him and that's hard to do," Bowyer said. "The communication between a driver and crew chief is so crucial to your performance and to your outcome to how Sunday's race goes -- it's everything. So him helping me help him, I think our communication has been great this year and I think that's why you see our team, as new as it is, carrying the flag pretty much, week in and week out, for RCR.

"I'm really proud of Shane and his efforts, his organization is superb. I know it's not enough, but I'm proud of these guys because they've worked their butts off and for a new team starting out, I'd say we've done pretty good."

It's a legend of the Chase: If you ain't in it, you might as well not exist. And for Bowyer, who won his first Cup race here two years ago after leading 222 laps, and who finished third and fifth in the last two championships, the realization was bluntly apparent Friday.

That day, Bowyer qualified 17th, but even as a former winner at this venue, GM's two media representatives didn't even talk to him to get any quotes for use by the general media. Making it even worse was the fact that Bowyer was third-quickest in the opening practice.

On Saturday, Bowyer logged the 14th- and 11th-best speeds.

The stats prove a breakthrough win could come here. In that September 2007 victory, Bowyer recorded a perfect 150.0 driver rating, logging a 1.573 average running position. Bowyer joined drivers Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, RCR teammate Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers to earn the perfect rating.

Bowyer agreed that first win could come Sunday.

"You've got to start with one before you can get two, but it could come this weekend," he said. "This is a good track for me and this is one we can win at. We've proven that before and dominated here.

"We've struggled at times this year, but we've really picked up the pace on the pit road side of things after struggling most of the year. I'm not going to lie about that, I'm a realist -- but we've got a really good pit crew right now and I'm looking forward to having those guys for many years to come because they're as big a part of [any success we have] as anything."

Video: No. 33 mechanic does it for the love of the sport