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Remember that old Sesame Street bit - the one that begins, "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong . . . "?
That's Clint Bowyer in a nutshell.
Well, one-half of a nutshell.
He's not like the others.
But he belongs.
By the rules as dreamed up by NASCAR, he belongs.
Twelve drivers are about to set sail into NASCAR's playoffs. Eleven of them have won races this season. Clint Bowyer hasn't. Eleven of them have rung up anywhere from four to 14 top-5s. Clint Bowyer has two.
Eleven of them probably don't feel the need to state their bona fides and recite chapter and verse why they deserve a shot at a championship as much as anybody.
Make that 12.
"Aside from a win, we've become a top-10 team week-in and week-out," Bowyer said at RIR, where he wound up 12th Saturday night. "That's what it takes to be there. I don't think it's a fluke to be where we are by any means."
He's a guy from small-town Kansas who clicked his heels one day and wound up driving stock cars at 180 mph for a living. OK, it wasn't quite that simple - but almost. Five years ago, Bowyer was scuffling in the low minors and steering modifieds around places called Lakeside Speedway and I-70 Speedway.
Now he's headed for Loudon, Dover and beyond as the 12th qualifier for the Chase - a mere 60 points behind pacesetter Jimmie Johnson and light years removed from the young motorcycle racer who played eat-my-dirt until five years ago.
"It has definitely been a short road," he said. "I don't have many starts on asphalt, period. I feel like we've come a long way in a short period of time, but we have a long way to go."
What's helped Bowyer most is that he's a fast learner. What helped him a lot was rain in 2003 at Pocono. Bowyer was making his first ARCA-event start in Nashville that day. Richard Childress was trying to stay dry in eastern Pennsylvania. Childress fled to a hauler. He plunked down in front of a TV and tuned in Nashville.
And Bowyer sort of popped off the screen. He led some laps. He finished second. He raised Childress' eyebrows. Next morning, Bowyer was on a plane bound for North Carolina and a sit-down at Childress' shop. A contract that would lead to a Busch Series apprenticeship was produced. The boss remembers the first-impressions quality that sealed the deal.
"Just his attitude," Childress said. "His sheer desire to win reminded me of another race car driver."
That might be Dale Earnhardt, who drove Childress' Chevys to six championships. Now, Bowyer is no Earnhardt (who is?) - not yet, at any rate. He's 28 and - to repeat - hasn't won a race, let alone a title. He has, on the other hand, made a mark.
"Clint is a very remarkable young man," said teammate Jeff Burton. "What he has been able to do in only four years of asphalt experience has impressed the hell out of me. He's just full of talent."
Bowyer finished 17th in the standings as a rookie last year. He finished 18th and upside down at the 2007 opener at Daytona in February - skidding across the line on his roof after a multi-car crash had him flipping in the air.
He has since righted his ship - he didn't fall below 11th in the standings from mid-March through RIR - and is ready to steam on.
"I'm excited," Bowyer said. "The last couple months, we haven't been able to run the way we want to run. We've had to be conservative and protect our place. We've got to pick the pace up now and go for the championship."
He thinks he belongs. Who are we to tell him he doesn't?
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