Bowyer, team focus on the present at Fontana

FONTANA, Calif. -- Some thirty minutes after the end of Sunday's Pepsi Max 400, crewmembers were busy in the garage area at Auto Club Speedway, removing the engine of the No. 33 Chevrolet for a trip to the sanctioning body's research and development center. But for the first time in weeks, the chassis will go home on the team hauler rather than as property of NASCAR.

According to acting crew chief Scott Miller, that's just "normal inspection for finishing second."

Call it redemption. Call it vindication. But the past four weeks have been anything but normal for Clint Bowyer, his team and officials at Richard Childress Racing. So the look on Clint Bowyer's face in the interview room was perhaps a window into the team's collective soul: a mixture of pride, satisfaction, more than a bit of exhaustion -- and a glint of frustration, coupled with defiance.

On the heels of eventually coming out on the losing end of an appeal that cost Bowyer his crew chief, his car chief and perhaps most painfully, 150 points that erased the shine from a New Hampshire win that could have put him in Chase contention, the team came to California with a collective chip on its shoulder.

With RCR competition director Miller taking over for Shane Wilson on the pit box, the team never missed a beat all day. And if not for a debris caution that wiped out Bowyer's big lead with fewer than 20 laps remaining, it's possible the lanky Kansan could have been celebrating in Victory Lane.

"You always come to win," Bowyer said. "If you didn't, you probably wouldn't get paid to do this very often. But you always have that mentality, that goal when you show up.

"But I didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you, without our crew chief and everything. I've never been without a crew chief and never been in that situation. But Scott filled in well. Shane, [the things he] planned going into this week were spot on, and really we unloaded well and never looked back from there."

Miller stood next to a stack of tires and watched crewmembers working on the car and gave credit where credit was due.

"We've needed to get back focused on what we're doing, put the controversy and everything behind us and get back to business," Miller said. "Fortunately we were able to do that today. Unfortunately, Shane wasn't here to enjoy it.

"They did a really good job preparing for this race, and I just came and helped them execute their plan. They were ready for this one. It's a shame he couldn't be here."

Bowyer reveled in the satisfaction of making a last-lap pass of Jimmie Johnson to capture second. At the same time, racers are by nature greedy.

"A good run was crucial for our race team after what had happened with our win, and we got that today," Bowyer said. "But I was frustrated I didn't get a win.

"I really, really wanted to win just to set the record straight on what had happened with the last win. We're capable of winning races, and if we keep doing what we did today, we're going to win another one."

But the reason why Bowyer looked a bit rankled came from what he felt was an oddly-timed debris caution while he was pulling away from eventual winner Tony Stewart. He commented on it when interviewed immediately after the race.

"I didn't need that caution to come out there," Bowyer said. "That piece of debris was back there the whole run, but finally a mysterious caution came out."

And when pressed on the issue later, he admitted those are the breaks of racing sometimes.

"I saw it for a long time," Bowyer said of the debris that eventually brought out the yellow flag on Lap 182. "The biggest one, though, was like a whole rear of a car laying down in [Turns] 1 and 2, the first run. I guess they never saw that one.

"You know, I mean, hell, it's part of it. What do you say? You know, I got one [win] from Tony Stewart when he ran out of gas, and I felt like we had that race won until the caution came out, and he got one. I'm happy for him, I am. And he was happy for me when I beat him, and we'll go on."

Shakespeare wrote, "What's past is prologue." And while Bowyer was replaying recent events in his mind's rear-view mirror, Miller was already looking to the future.

"We're putting all that behind us and getting on about our business," Miller said. "Unfortunately, the No. 33 is essentially out of the championship, but we can use these races as a springboard for leading into next year, learn a few things, maybe run some development pieces in the engine, things you wouldn't normally be able to do. We need to take advantage of all that."

And at the end of the day, focusing on the present instead of the past proved to be a perfect prescription for Bowyer, Miller and their team.

"It was just really what we needed to get back on track," Miller said. "[We need to] just have fun and get back to what we're doing."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.