Clint Bowyer

Birthday: May 30, 1979
Hometown: Emporia, Kan.

YEAR-BY-YEAR CUP SERIES RECAP

2008 -- Finished fifth in series points. ... Won Richmond spring race. ... At season's second Richmond event, secured berth in the Chase by finishing 12th. ... Posted top-10 finishes in half of Chase's 10 races. ... Finished with no DNFs for second consecutive season.

2007 -- Finished third in series points. ... Started from the pole and got first series victory to lead off the Chase, at New Hampshire, to move from 12th to fourth in the standings. Led 222 of 300 laps. ... Moved into third after a runner-up finish at Kansas, the Chase's third race, and retained that spot the remainder of the season. ... First pole in the series came at Darlington.

2006 -- Finished 17th in series points, in first full Cup season. ... Started year with impressive sixth-place finish in Daytona 500. ... Was in the top 10 in series points for first four weeks of the season. ... Got first top-five finish (fifth) at Phoenix spring race. ... Qualified on the outside pole for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

2005 -- Finished 69th in series points, having run one race, at Phoenix in April, where he started 25th and finished 22nd. ... Amid a runner-up season in the Busch Series, announced plans in October for a move to Cup in 2006.

PREVIOUS RACING HISTORY

Won the Nationwide Series title in 2008. ... Competed full time in the Busch Series in 2004 and '05, finishing as series runner-up in '05. ... Raced in NASCAR Midwest Series in 2003. ... Won NASCAR Weekly Series Midwest Region championship in 2002. ... Also won two NASCAR Dodge Weekly track titles in 2002. ... Began racing at age 5; raced motocross for nine years with more than 200 wins.

NOTEWORTHY

Bowyer caught the eye of legendary car owner Richard Childress following a 2003 ARCA race at Nashville where he finished second. After that race, Childress tracked down Bowyer, who was at a fabrication shop in his hometown of Emporia, Kan. When told that someone from RCR was on the phone, wanting to talk about hiring him, Bowyer almost didn't take the call, thinking that someone was pulling a practical joke. ... Bowyer is a huge Elvis Presley fan; one of his main off-track highlights of 2005 was meeting Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, during the Busch Series race weekend in Memphis. ... Bowyer's favorite sports teams to follow are University of Kansas basketball and the Kansas City Chiefs.