September 19, 2007
By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams

The entire weekend at Richmond, all the talk was that Clint Bowyer was a Chase guy without a win. Clint had to be getting tired of the questions, "when are you going to win," by the time the weekend ended.

And while everyone agreed that he would win soon I think few thought that New Hampshire Internatinal Speedway would be the track. And not only would NHIS be the track, but that Clint would start on the pole and dominate the race by putting over half the field a lap down -- including teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, whom many had as their pick for a win that day.

Not too bad for his first victory. This was no fuel mileage race, pit strategy 2-tire vs. 4-tire, lucky-to-be-in-position-to-win, win. This was a smack down -- good old time whoopin’.

This was a race that had all eyes on Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson -- who finished second, third and fifth respectively – vying for the coveted points lead.

It just goes to show that no matter what, anyone can beat anyone on a given Sunday. Or Saturday night. Plus, it also shows that Richard Childress Racing may be getting a handle on the Car of Tomorrow (COT) downforce issue to compete with Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Of course Harvick and Burton both struggled a bit, which puts that theory somewhat in question, but they both finished in the top 20 even though they struggled.

This all paints the points picture in an even more interesting light.

Johnson and Gordon are now tied with Stewart only 10 points behind as they head to the high-banks of the Monster Mile at Dover International Speedway. Bowyer moved himself up eight places and he has run well on the concrete track. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. are good there also, but Truex has run better than Kyle at Dover. This will be a race where Truex could make up even more ground on the leaders.

Kurt Busch is heading in the wrong direction and Dover is not one of his strongest tracks.

Dover could prove to be a bounce back track for Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards while Matt Kenseth looks to stretch his consistent runs. Harvick and Burton need much better runs this week or they will fall further behind the leaders. Hope is not gone for them as they do have strong tracks coming up, the leaders are no slouches on those tracks either and they will need some bad racing luck to befall the leaders in order to catch up.

And watch out for Ryan Newman – he is looking to prove he can run with the big dogs for another week.

In other news, Petty Enterprises is rumored to be considering a partnership with the new Gillett-Evernham Motorsports organization. This could be a boost for Dodge. While the Yates-Roush partnership seems to have done more for Roush than Yates, Petty has nowhere to go but up. Once again, money makes the world go round and if Petty is to build on Bobby Labonte’s recent success, they need to prove to sponsors that they are for real and moving forward. And they need to get their other car moving in the right direction. Evernham’s technological edge could help Petty get over the hump they have been stuck behind for so long.

Let’s hope so.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.