Clint Bowyer eager to reignite career at Stewart-Haas Racing

Clint Bowyer understands the skepticism whether Stewart-Haas Racing made the correct decision in naming him Tony Stewart’s successor. Those kinds of doubts tend to manifest when you haven’t won a race in four years and are coming off the worst season in your career.

Bowyer has eight Cup Series victories to his name and three times placed fifth or better in the year end standings, including a runner-up finish in 2012. But his last premier series win occurred 149 races ago and in two of the past three seasons he’s failed to qualify for the Chase playoff. And he’s coming off a 2016 season where he struggled mightily, recording only three top-10 finishes, leading just three laps and ranking 27th in points.

“That’s a real legitimate question,” Bowyer told reporters Wednesday at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, N.C. “You just don’t know. I think the last time I was in a good car, I was good. I think that I’m a smarter driver than I was three years ago. I think I’m plenty capable of winning races. I love what I see at Stewart-Haas.”

To Bowyer’s credit, his contention that he hasn’t recently been in equipment that matches his talent carries validity.

From 2014-2015, Bowyer was with a Michael Waltrip Racing team coming off a crippling cheating scandal in 2013 that cost the organization a multi-million dollar sponsor and resulted in the defection of several key personnel. Last year, Bowyer drove for HScott Motorsports, a small outfit that didn’t have the resources to be consistently competitive.

Bowyer’s experience with HScott was especially frustrating. When MWR ceased operation following the 2015 season Bowyer needed a one-year stopgap before he joined SHR to replace the retiring Stewart, who also co-owns the four-car team. If Bowyer wanted to continue racing and not sit out a year, HScott provided the only viable option.

In exchange for giving Bowyer a ride, HScott hoped Bowyer’s ability would overcome its shortcomings brought about by its small budget. That didn’t happen. Driver and team never gelled, with Bowyer at several points throughout the year becoming considerably displeased with the situation.

“Was it the best thing in the world for me? Probably not,” Bowyer said of 2015. “It probably wasn’t healthy as a matter of fact. Nonetheless, this deal was worth it. This opportunity was worth whatever you had to go through, whether it was sitting at home or getting into something. It didn’t matter, I signed on for this thing. I want to be in this car because I knew it was my soonest opportunity to be in the best possible situation to win races.”

Excuses such as quality of equipment, lack of funding, and too few crewmembers are no longer applicable at SHR, regarded as one of NASCAR’s upper echelon organizations.

The team won its first championship with Stewart in 2011 and second with Kevin Harvick in 2014. Last year, Stewart, Harvick, and Kurt Busch combined for six wins and each earned a Chase berth, with Harvick and Busch both advancing to the semifinal round.

Now officially a member of SHR, Bowyer understands the opportunity before him. He says he’s not nervous, but excited for the chance to prove himself.

“These cars are capable of going out and winning races,” Bowyer said. “My teammates are capable of going out and winning races. It’s been a while since I’ve had that teammate that you could lean on that when he was doing something that you knew you could put that setup in the exact way he had it and go out and have success in it.”