Clint Bowyer’s car was beaten, battered, taped together and looked like it got the worst of it during Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
Yet despite an afternoon that saw him involved in multiple incidents around the 11-turn, 1.99-mile road course, Bowyer still managed to finish second to winner and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who snapped a 20-race winless streak.
The most notable hurdle Bowyer faced Sunday came when pole-sitter Kyle Larson suddenly slowed after making contact with AJ Allmendinger, leaving Bowyer with no avenue to escape. The contact severely damaged the front of Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford and dropped him to 37th overall, second-to-last in the running order. He would also spin following contact with Brad Keselowski.
“I saw (Larson) check up and I get into him and I was thinking, ‘Well, we’ll both survive this,’” Bowyer said. “Then all of a sudden (Allmendinger) was coming through him and I smoked him and hurt the left front.”
So close, @ClintBowyer.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 25, 2017
This machine nearly got it done. pic.twitter.com/OC1ffKT5AK
But Bowyer would rally; a task made all the more difficult by the last 56 laps going caution-free. That comeback impressed SHR co-owner Tony Stewart, who Bowyer replaced this season after Stewart retired.
“I think Clint probably ran one of the most aggressive, hard races of anybody all day,” Stewart said. “To restart after the second stage 33rd and to battle back with no trick strategy or any gimmick to get him back up there -- he drove from 33rd to second I thought was really impressive.”
The good of Bowyer’s result is that it moved him ahead of Matt Kenseth for the final provisional spot in the 16-driver playoff field, which has 10 positions effectively filled by those drivers who have won a race this season. Bowyer leads Kenseth by four points with 10 Monster Energy Cup Series races remaining.
But through 16 races, Bowyer is winless on the season (and in fact, hasn’t won a premier division race since 2012). Without victory, there’s no assurance he’ll earn a postseason berth considering the number of slots available to non-winners continues to shrink.
“Let's face it, yeah, we've got to win,” Bowyer said. “We need a win in a big way, and today would have been a great win, but after everything that happened, I mean, to get second-place is, I guess, really good.”