DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Clint Bowyer's first victory of the
season gave Richard Childress Racing a much-needed boost.
Bowyer won the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International
Speedway on Friday night, holding off Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards
in a green-white-checkered finish.
The defending series champion was the leader when a four-car
accident brought out the caution with six laps to go in the Subway
Jalapeno 250. That set up a final two-lap overtime sprint, and
Bowyer lined up inside of Edwards for the double-file restart.
With Busch pushing him from behind, Bowyer raced to the front.
He didn't have to deal with a challenge from Busch because an
accident in the fourth turn brought out a race-ending caution,
giving RCR its first win of the year.
Busch finished second, followed by Edwards, Joey Logano and
Kasey Kahne.
"It's been tough this year," said Bowyer, winning for the
first time in six starts in the second-tier series. "It's been
tough on Richard, tough on everybody. Just real proud of everybody
at RCR."
Bowyer's win might not do much to soothe Childress' problems in
the Sprint Cup series, where Bowyer (15th), Jeff Burton (16th),
Casey Mears (20th) and Kevin Harvick (27th) are all out of
championship contention. Then again, a trip to Victory Lane could
raise morale across the board.
And this one wasn't a fluke. Bowyer had the car to beat much of
the night. He started on the pole and spent much of the night
running up front. He moved to the front for good with about 30 laps
to go, often driving away from his competitors down the
backstretch.
"That was the best we had," Busch said. "Clint's car was
better than ours tonight. We have some work to do before coming
back here.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Brian Vickers,
Justin Allgaier, David Ragan and Harvick.
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