LOUDON, N.H. -- He squeezed into the Chase, won the opening playoff race at New Hampshire, and used the momentum from that Sunday afternoon in the Granite State to stay in the championship hunt until the final weeks. For Clint Bowyer, it's beginning to feel an awful lot like 2007 all over again.

The Richard Childress Racing driver broke through as a contender that season, when Bowyer won his first race on NASCAR's highest level and was the only driver not employed by Hendrick Motorsports to have a chance at the championship as the year wound down. And it all stemmed from one day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, when Bowyer shocked the sport's established powers by winning the Chase opener in dominant fashion, leading 222 of 300 laps and taking the checkered flag by 6.5 seconds.

“

That's the thing about our race team, if we can get the finish like we run during the race, then we can win this championship.

”

-- CLINT BOWYER

Sunday's victory was far more dramatic -- although Bowyer led a race-high 177 laps, he triumphed only after leader Tony Stewart ran out of fuel approaching the white flag. Yet the result was just the same, with Bowyer making a huge leap in the point standings and trying to prove that he belongs in the championship conversation.

"It reminded me a lot of 2007," said Bowyer, who has a different team, sponsor, crew chief and car number than he did then. "That first win of the season, the first win, that was our first win as a group, too, just like it was here. That confidence, the momentum, everybody, not just for me, the crew chief, and all of his decisions, the over the wall guys, everybody has a major pep in their step right now and they are going to carry that through on to next week. And if we can continue to ride that momentum wave through this Chase, we can have a shot at it just like we did in 2007. Going into the last race, we were really the only team that had a shot at knocking off a Hendrick car and I aim to do just that again."

Bowyer didn't quite make it to the last race in 2007 -- he was effectively eliminated after falling 181 points behind following the season's third-to-last event, at Texas -- but he was a nuisance to eventual champion Jimmie Johnson and runner-up Jeff Gordon while he lasted, remaining well within striking distance of the top for most of his run through that Chase. Sunday's victory brought back those familiar feelings, bolstered this time by a belief that he can finish the job.

"I know we have what it takes," Bowyer said. "We have the equipment. We have the race team. It's up to us to get it put together. Kevin Harvick has done a good job all season long of showing RCR's potential of getting it all -- not just the start of the race, the middle of the race, but the finish. And you know, if we can match what he's done 26 races in, somebody at RCR can win this championship."

Can that somebody be Bowyer? Sunday's victory was only the third of his career, and came on clearly his best track among the 10 venues in the Chase. But he's had solid runs at his home track in Kansas (where he has an 11.0 average career finish), as well as Fontana (12.0) and Martinsville (12.8). He's scored Nationwide victories at Dover and Phoenix. And he posted top-10 finishes five times during last year's Chase, which he failed to qualify for.

"Look at my races last year," he said. "... As bad as our cars were, if we were in [the Chase], we would have finished fifth or sixth. You know, these are good race tracks for us. Dover is another one where I've won twice in the Nationwide Series, but haven't always got the finish. And that's the thing about our race team, if we can get the finish like we run during the race, then we can win this championship."

As the last team to qualify for this year's Chase -- Bowyer didn't lock up his bid until last weekend at Richmond -- the No. 33 outfit knows they're an underdog. But in the aftermath of Sunday's opener, they looked around, saw Johnson seventh in points, and found themselves second, only 35 behind leader Denny Hamlin.

"The last couple of weeks have been really good to us, and now we have to capitalize on our opportunity," crew chief Shane Wilson said. "As an underdog, that's what we are going to do, and we did it [Sunday]. I really feel like, why not us? You know, Jimmie Johnson is good, but he's won four [championships] in a row, and the last four or five weeks, we've been right there with him. He's not that much better than us. We can do it, and why not us?"

Related:
• Bowyer snaps 88-race drought in Chase opener
• Press Pass | Victory Lane | Final Laps