September 17, 2007
By Ron Felix

First Victory * CIA Stock Photo

28 year-old Clint Bowyer, from Emporia, Kansas, picked up his first Nextel Cup victory in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Speedway on Sunday. Bowyer has confidence in his ability but was continually asked when he was going to get his first win. Bowyer isn't in Kansas anymore and the doubt from others is over.

“I knew we could do it,” Bowyer said. “This was an unbelievable day. Hopefully, this proves we’ve earned a spot. I won’t kid you, I was about to throw up those last 30 laps, you hear every rattle and squeak in it and I was praying that no caution would come.”

Bowyer led more laps on Sunday (221 of 300) than he had in his 64 NASCAR career races. It was total domination. His previous best finish was third and he did that twice. Bowyer moved from 12th to fourth in the point standings and he became the fourth different driver to win his first race this year.

Jeff Gordon fought handling woes but the team kept adjusting and got it nearly right near the end, he finished second and Tony Stewart brought his Chevrolet home in the third spot. Gordon was happy with his second place.

"It was a real good day," Gordon said. "I'm so proud of this race team. That was a great effort to come from 18th and fight our way up to finish inside the top five. I know this DuPont Chevrolet is absolutely worn out. We drove the brakes, the tires, and just everything completely off this thing."

Kyle Busch, who crashed early in this race last year, digging himself an early hole to start the Chase, drove a cautious race on Sunday and finished fifth.

"It was a good day," said an ecstatic Busch. "This bunch of guys did an awesome job for me and gave me an awesome race car to keep up front with these guys today. We got back a little bit there in the beginning part of the race which just wasn't the best thing but we kept getting better and better and making more and more adjustments to where we could get up front and we did a pit deal there so we could keep it up front."

Busch was followed by Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman and J.J. Yeley to round out the top ten.

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are tied in points at 5210 -- with Tony Stewart at 5200 -- and Bowyer has a total of 5195. Kurt Busch was the biggest loser on the day, dropping down to 12th in points after experiencing engine troubles.

David Ragan finished 19th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the 12th time this season. He claimed top rookie honors for the third consecutive race. The Nextel Cup Series moves to Dover International Speedway next Sunday, Sept, 23rd, for the Dodge Dealers 400.

It’s tough when you fall behind," said Ragan. "Three hundred laps, man, this is like a late model race up here. You fall behind just a little bit and it seems like you can never catch back up. If we would have started the race how we ended we could have been a top-10 or top-15 car. We were just a little bit off at the beginning. It was a good day. We picked up some spots."

There were seven cautions for a total of 27 laps. -- The race featured 15 lead changes among 10 different drivers.



For full final race results...     (Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Nextel Cup drivers points...     (Insider Racing News)