Bowyer wins at PIR

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Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) - Clint Bowyer won Friday night's Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway. The No.2 Chevrolet driver crossed the finish line ahead of Matt Kenseth.
The victory was Bowyer's first of the season and fourth of his Busch career.
Pole winner Kyle Busch brought 43 cars to the green flag for 200 laps of Busch Series racing. But on the first lap trouble started about midway through the pack and it sent Shane Huffman, Tony Raines and Aric Almirola to the garage for repairs.
After the restart, Busch took off building a solid lead over Bowyer and the field. The car on the move however, was Casey Mears who started 17th but cracked the top-10 by lap 30. Busch led a total of 33 laps before Bowyer took a turn at the top. Bowyer and Jeff Burton moved out to a three-second lead on Busch who said his car was too loose.
Bowyer, Busch and Burton continued to show the way while Edwards, the points leader, was fourth. But Edwards also had some left-front fender damage from a pit lane collision with Marcos Ambrose that might effect his aerodynamics.
At lap 90 it was still Bowyer, Busch and Burton with the lead. Mears was up to seventh and a new player was coming on fast - Kevin Harvick. Driving the No.77 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, Harvick has started 35th but was up to 12th.
Following a pit stop, Ryan Newman stayed out to take the lead while all the other leaders pitted. The strategy didn't work as Newman and Busch got together on the backstretch as the cars with new tires were trying to pass Newman on the older rubber.
On lap 101 Busch was almost past Newman when he slid up in front of him and his right-rear quarter panel hit Newman's left-front fender. Both drivers were knocked out of the race.
Bowyer and Burton exchanged the lead a couple of times which allowed third- place Denny Hamlin to get to their back bumper. And 2003 Nextel Cup Series champion Kenseth joined them as well.
Burton slowly edged away from Bowyer and by lap 130 the lead was 1.524 seconds. One of the reasons Burton was getting away was that Bowyer's crew was telling him to conserve fuel.
Then Todd Kluever spun on lap 136 bringing out the caution flag and forcing a decision for every crew chief.
Do you stay out and hope for a couple more caution flags or pit and be assured of making the checkered flag on fuel?
All the leader pitted for fuel and four tires except Juan Montoya in the No.42 Evernham Motorsports Dodge. He gained 12 positions on the track by taking two tires and fuel only. However, he didn't last there for very long, just like Newman earlier in the race. Bowyer, Kenseth and Hamlin all got around Montoya on the first green-flag lap.
Kluever spun for the second time in the evening to bring out a caution flag, leaving 40 laps left to race.
Bowyer, Kenseth and Hamlin again got out quickly. With 30 laps to go Kenseth went to the high side and made the successful pass around Bowyer. Kenseth and Bowyer moved out on Burton in third leaving him more than one second back with 20 laps to go.
Bowyer kept taking a peek to the inside, but couldn't make the move just yet. Then with 14 laps he tried it again and got side-by-side. He edged in front of him, but Kenseth wouldn't go away.
The fun battle was interrupted when Stephen Leicht crashed to bring out one more caution flag.
The race restarted with seven laps to go and Bowyer got off well. In fact, he broke free of Kenseth and Burton began to pressure Kenseth for second place. The second-place fight left Bowyer to cruise to the checkered flag and his first win of 2007. Burton, Hamlin and Edwards completed the top-five.



SI.com - Racing - NASCAR: Busch Series