Bowyer sought to make a statement at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. -- Clint Bowyer making this year's Chase was little more than a foregone conclusion Saturday, but for 95 percent of the Air Guard 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Bowyer looked like he was on a bigger mission.

"I was trying to make a statement -- I wanted to win," Bowyer said. "And I thought we had a shot at winning, but we just got behind and never could get it back, and that's when you need to start thinking, 'I need to take care of business -- I don't need to go out here and make a mistake and take a shot at getting ourselves knocked out of this deal.'

"So we did what we had to do."

That included a sixth-place finish that locked Bowyer into the 12th and final spot in the Chase.

At the green flag, Bowyer was 117 points ahead of 13th-place Ryan Newman and needing only to finish 28th if Newman won and led the most laps. Newman never came close to that and ended up 11th.

For his part, Bowyer was never scored lower than fourth until the last 80 laps of the 400-lap event. Then, he slid from second to fifth, regained fourth from Juan Montoya with 20 laps to go and then was passed by Joey Logano and Marcos Ambrose, to end up sixth.

"We were [going] in the wrong direction, and we were loose in [to the corners] and off [the corners] -- that was the tendency of the tire or whatever the case may be," Bowyer said. "It seemed like everybody fought that from time to time. We just went the wrong way at the end of the race and just have another shot at compensating for it. But hey, our goal was to get in the Chase and we did it."

Bowyer earned his 14th top-10 finish of the season, but given the five sub-30 finishes that put him in the position of having to scramble until the last minute to make this Chase, it was no surprise he was left wanting more.

"You know, I want to win a race, and I feel like we keep getting closer and closer," said Bowyer, who last won at this track in May 2008, 88 races ago. "We have to get better at closing this deal, just like [Saturday] night I was frustrated. As happy as I am with making the Chase, I was frustrated with the finish.

"Whatever happened that last run, we really fell off. We were a second-place car and made an attempt to pass Denny [Hamlin, the race winner and the Chase's top seed] a couple of times and slipped clear to sixth. We have to get better at closing them deals if we expect to compete for a championship with these guys."

Kevin Harvick, who'd led the standings since the spring race at Richmond, and goes into the Chase seeded third, was convinced Bowyer would make this year's Chase as one of three Richard Childress Racing cars -- along with the No. 29 and fellow teammate Jeff Burton.

"It's great for the company to have all three cars in there -- that says a lot about everybody who works [at RCR]," Harvick said. "As far as Clint's standpoint, were it not for a few goofy things happening and some late race incidents happening, it would not even have been close, because they've performed well enough to be right up in the top-five [in the standings].

"So they've done a good job and all's he had to do was pretty much fire the thing up [Saturday] night and not have a meltdown. They did a great job and I think it's good for the company."

Bowyer led three times for 33 laps during the first half of the race, when he was running second to Hamlin. Until the race's last run, in an event that had only three caution flags and none in the last 159 laps, Bowyer was a fixture in either second or third. And that's got both he and his crew chief, Shane Wilson, enthused.

"The best thing is, that we're running good," Bowyer said. "About the last month has all been really good runs for us, we've had some things we've been working for and we have some good cars built, and I'm excited. We've got a lot of good tracks for me and [I think] we can make a strong run [in the Chase]."

"It was a good night -- I don't want to say a statement race because we've been improving as the second half of the year's been going on and we've put together some good races," Wilson said after the race. "We've run up front and then slid back at the end of some races and we finally kind of just put it together.

"We stepped back a little bit [at the end] and some of that was just being careful -- but I think if that would have been a Chase race, I think we would have been fourth or fifth."

Wilson didn't exactly agree that if it wasn't a statement, that it might have been a statement of what they could have been achieving regularly.

"If we could have been doing this right along, we would have," Wilson said. "We've been improving, and it's good for everyone's confidence to put some races together like that and get in the [Chase] very solidly [Saturday] and I'm just looking forward to Loudon [next weekend's Chase opener]."

Both Wilson and Bowyer agreed their team had good things to look forward to in this Chase.

"The races at different tracks [in the Chase] will be some different guys [contending]," Wilson said. "But this track here kind of helps you for Loudon and for Phoenix. We did a couple things a little bit different so we keep on improving and finding those little crumbs and hopefully, someday, we'll be able to win one of these."

"I'm very excited for our race team for making the Chase -- very excited for RCR," Bowyer said. "After last year, to get all three cars in the [2010] Chase after none of us being in the Chase last year feels good. I'm very excited for RCR's chances and I feel like this is the best shot we've ever had, since I've been there, to win a championship.

"You know, from here, it's 10 races and it's all in. That's the way you have to approach these races and have fun with it, and hopefully the cards will fall in our favor."

"The last month has been really good for us," Bowyer said. "We've had a lot of good runs. I'm excited to carry on, ride that wave. We're running well, and everybody is having fun right now, and to be a part of the Chase is just an added bonus."