By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of those wild days in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. For Clint Bowyer, it was a day of close calls, stressful moments and a joyous ending.
Entering the Brickyard 400 just eight points above the cutline for the 16-driver playoffs, the regular-season finale gave Bowyer one more event to bring it home. He did just that, qualifying third and finishing fifth.
“It’s just one of those days. You knew it was going to be chaotic,” Bowyer said. “I said that before the race that is was going to be an emotional roller coaster.”
With nine cautions swallowing up playoff drivers, past winners and champions, Bowyer was only inches removed from becoming a much larger story on Sunday. That was when Alex Bowman spun his No. 88 off Turn 2 with 24 to go.
“You just kept getting thrown swings at,” he said, “and you’re like, ‘Man, where is it going to come from next?’ And about the time you think, ‘Ah right, I think we got a good handle on this. Some guys have had trouble, we just need to finish this damn thing.’ Then all of a sudden, here comes the No. 88!”
Avoiding the Bowman’s Chevy, Bowyer continued on to score fifth at the line. That, matched with hardy points earned in Stage 2, gave Bowyer enough room to make the playoffs for the eighth time.
Bowyer had to keep on eye on Ryan Newman, who rode one spot behind his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in the points.
“The No. 6 car [Newman] was able to stay out there [in Stage 1] and capitalize and get those five points on us,” he said. “I was like, ‘Damn! Didn’t really need that!’
“It worked out in the second stage, I finished fifth, he finished 11th. It handed it right back to us. From there, the race definitely came to us.”
Earning his second straight top-five Indy run, it was also his first top five of the year since Pocono in June.
“We were faster than where we ran,” he said. “We were a top-five car, you just try to survive. Once the race started to play out the way it did, you had a good snapshot of how things were going. You had to survive this thing. You could see it was a war of attrition and it was. We survived.”