2004 In 2004, Bowyer began by finishing eighth in the
ARCA Re/Max Series race at Daytona in the No. 7 Chevrolet for Scott Traylor. In 2004, Bowyer began running in the Busch Series for Childress, sharing seat time in the No. 21
Reese's -sponsored Chevrolet with veteran
Kevin Harvick. He drove in half of the 34 Busch Series races that year, winning one pole at Talladega and seven top-tens, attaining a season-high third place finish in the
Federated Auto Parts 300 at
Nashville Superspeedway in June. He also ran three races for
Kevin Harvick Incorporated with help from
Andy Petree Racing driving the No. 33 Chevrolet sponsored by
Monaco Coaches and
Snap-on. Bowyer made two starts for
Bill McAnally Racing in the Camping World West Series in the No. 20 Chevrolet. In his two starts at Phoenix and
Auto Club Speedway, he won one pole and had a best finish of second.
2005–2006 Bowyer's first full Busch season was in 2005, replacing
Ron Hornaday in the No. 2
ACDelco-sponsored Chevrolet. He won two poles and two races en route to a second-place finish to repeat as champion
Martin Truex Jr., losing by only 68 points. He also made his Nextel Cup debut in the No. 33
Sylvania-sponsored Chevy on April 23, 2005, during the
Subway Fresh 500 at
Phoenix International Raceway. He finished 22nd as the first car one lap down. Richard Childress Racing announced on October 15, 2005, that Bowyer would race the No. 07
Jack Daniel's-sponsored Chevrolet full-time in the Nextel Cup series, replacing
Dave Blaney for the 2006 season. Bowyer began his rookie Cup season with three top-five finishes and had a total of eleven top-tens that season, with his best finish being a third at
California Speedway. He finished 68 points behind
Denny Hamlin for
NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors. Bowyer also continued to drive the No. 2 in the Busch Series full-time, winning once and finishing third in points. Bowyer won his first Craftsman Truck Series race in the No. 46
Chevrolet Silverado fielded by
Morgan-Dollar Motorsports at
Texas Motor Speedway on November 3, 2006, in his third career Truck start, making his first CTS start that year at Martinsville for
Green Light Racing.
2007 After dramatically starting the 2007 season with a last-lap crash at Daytona (crossing the finish line upside down and on fire as teammate Kevin Harvick won), Bowyer won the
Budweiser Pole position for the
Dodge Avenger 500 at
Darlington Raceway. He finished the regular season ninth in points but was seeded twelfth for the
playoff since race wins determine playoff seeding. Bowyer won his second pole at the
Sylvania 300 at
Loudon, and two days later went on to win his first Nextel Cup race in his 64th start. The win made Bowyer the fifteenth driver to win at least one race in all three of NASCAR's top series. For the 2007 Busch season, Bowyer ran a partial Busch Series schedule in the RCR No. 2 car. On April 20, 2007, he won the Busch Series
Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at
Phoenix International Raceway. He followed that up with another Busch Series win on May 4, 2007, in the
Circuit City 250 at
Richmond International Raceway. Bowyer also ran select races for Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
2008 In 2008, Bowyer continued to drive in the Cup and Nationwide Series full-time. Bowyer dominated the late stages of the
Daytona 500 but was spun out by
Juan Pablo Montoya with seventeen laps remaining. On May 3, 2008, Bowyer earned his second Sprint Cup victory, winning the
Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Speedway. Bowyer led only two laps, going to the front after
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and
Kyle Busch got together with less than four laps remaining in the race. On August 23, 2008, Bowyer was announced as the driver of the No. 33
Chevrolet Impala SS for RCR.
Casey Mears from
Hendrick Motorsports replaced Bowyer in the
Jack Daniel's-sponsored car. This move was necessitated by a sponsor's request, as General Mills did not want Mears, who had been driving in the 2008 season for rival cereal maker
Kellogg's, representing them, so Childress sponsors General Mills and
Brown-Forman Corporation (parent company to Jack Daniel's) agreed to the swap so Bowyer, who drove for Brown-Forman, would drive for General Mills, and Mears could drive for Brown-Forman, as they had no problems with Mears representing the company. On November 15, 2008, Bowyer clinched the
NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship at
Homestead-Miami Speedway with a narrow margin of victory over
Carl Edwards of 21 points. Edwards won the race with Bowyer finishing 5th.
2009: No. 33 car Bowyer concentrated primarily on the Sprint Cup Series in 2009 and drove the No. 33
Chevrolet Impala to 15th place in the season standings. Bowyer trimmed his participation in the Nationwide Series to twelve races but performed well, winning at Daytona (July 3) and Dover (September 26), finishing in the top-five in six of the twelve races, and notching eight top-tens. Bowyer started the Cup season in strong fashion, finishing fourth in the Daytona 500 and second at Las Vegas in the third race of the year. With a sixth in Atlanta and a fifth in Martinsville, Bowyer was second in the overall standings after six races. A tough stretch in races seven through twelve dropped Bowyer down to seventeenth overall, 109 points behind Mark Martin in 12th place. After a much more consistent run in races 13-23 (3rd at Pocono in the No. 33 Hartford Racing paint out, eighth at Sonoma, eighth at Michigan), Bowyer had climbed up to fourteenth overall, within 58 points of twelfth place. Finishing in the top fifteen in eight of eleven races helped him make up 51 points on the 12th-place position. A 21st-place finish the following week (race 24) at Bristol really hurt Bowyer's chance at the Chase, dropping him 112 points behind Matt Kenseth in twelfth with just two races prior to the Chase. It was the 25th race (
Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta) that sealed Bowyer's fate, as a spin on lap 309 cost him two laps and the chance to compete in the Chase. While his chances at the Chase were over, Bowyer finished the season as he started it, with five top-tens and nine top-fifteens in the last eleven races. His top finish was the sixth-place run at Charlotte in the Scary Fast Count Chocula paintout. Overall, Bowyer finished the 2009 Sprint Cup Series in fifteenth place.
2010 True to form, Bowyer performed well early in 2010, finishing fourth in Daytona, seventh at Martinsville, and ninth at Phoenix to stand sixth after seven races. However, at Texas in the
Samsung Mobile 500 (race 8), Bowyer got caught in a major crash on lap 317 that wiped out eight other drivers and caused a 19-minute red flag race stoppage. The resulting 36th-place finish dropped Bowyer to 14th position overall, only one point behind 12th-place Joey Logano. Seventh- and twelfth place finishes at Talladega and Richmond put Bowyer back into twelfth place after ten races. The 11th race run at Darlington promised to be special. Bowyer ran the new
The Hartford Racing paint out as part of The Hartford's 200th anniversary celebration. As part of Fox's coverage, Bowyer was one of four cars with an in-car camera for the race. However, 101 laps into the race, Bowyer went to the pits and ultimately the garage, with brake issues. After a second long stop to correct, Bowyer finished in 32nd position, 36 laps down. Bowyer ran well again in races 12 through 14, like seventeenth, seventh, and ninth place finishes allowed him to move back up into 12th-place overall. In race 13 (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte), Bowyer led lap 217 following a caution for debris.
Kurt Busch passed Bowyer on the following lap and went on to win the race. In races 15–17, Bowyer finished 22nd at Michigan, 31st at Sonoma, and seventh at Loudon, NH. Despite the poor finish, Bowyer was very competitive at Sonoma. He led lap eighty (of 110) and was in seventh place with eleven laps to go. But on lap 100,
Elliott Sadler got bumped by
Jeff Gordon and spun Bowyer, dropping him all the way back to 34th place. Bowyer had one of his strongest runs of the year in the
Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, leading seventeen of the final 21 laps. Unfortunately, on the final Green-White restart, Bowyer got split by Jeff Gordon, lost the lead, fell back in the pack, and ultimately spun. In finishing seventeenth, Bowyer fell 49 points behind twelfth place
Carl Edwards. In race 19 at Chicagoland, Bowyer ran well all night, finishing fourth and moving up into twelfth place in the overall standings. He started 15th but moved up quickly, running in the top ten for the first half and then in the top five for most of the latter half of the race, battling Jeff Gordon for the lead with less than forty laps to go. In the Sylvania 300 at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bowyer started second and led the most laps before fading back into the Top 5. Taking the white flag in the second position, he suddenly witnessed then-leader
Tony Stewart run out of fuel, giving Bowyer the third win of his Sprint Cup career and vaulting him to second in the Chase standings behind Denny Hamlin. However, this was negated during post-race inspection at NASCAR's R&D center. Reports surfaced that Bowyer's car, used at Richmond, had come close to failing inspection. NASCAR announced on September 22 that it had issued fines and penalties to the No. 33 team after failing a secondary inspection. Most critically, crew chief
Shane Wilson was suspended for the next 6 races, and both Bowyer and car owner Richard Childress faced $150,000 in fines and the loss of 150 championship points. The penalty dropped Bowyer back to 12th in points, 185 points behind
Denny Hamlin. Childress appealed the decision, which reduced the suspensions to four races and $100,000, but the 150-point deduction was upheld. During the Pepsi Max 400 weekend at Fontana, Bowyer and fellow Childress driver
Austin Dillon taped an episode of
The Price Is Right that was scheduled to feature NASCAR-themed Showcases (a practice that occurs during a Fontana race, host
Drew Carey was the Grand Marshal of the August 2008 race) and aired on November 15, 2010. Bowyer finished second to
Tony Stewart in the race. Bowyer barely edged teammate
Kevin Harvick for the victory in the fall Talladega race, the
AMP Energy Juice 500. The race ended with the leaders in turn one when a caution was displayed for a large wreck on the front straightaway on the final lap. Bowyer finished tenth in the final Chase standings, earning him a spot on stage at the season-ending Awards Banquet.
2011: Final season at RCR Bowyer started off the 2011 season strong in the Budweiser shootout practice sessions, and he and his teammates regularly sat on top of the pylon. In the race, he and Jeff Burton led many laps but faded to tenth at the end (9th due to
Denny Hamlin being penalized for going below the yellow line). Bowyer qualified fifth for the Daytona 500 and finished 2nd to teammate
Jeff Burton in the second Gatorade duel by 0.005 seconds. They together dominated that race. In the Daytona 500, Bowyer teamed up with many drivers throughout the day, including Jeff Burton, Paul Menard (his new RCR teammate), Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kyle Busch. After Burton's engine let go, Bowyer found himself getting a push from Kyle Busch. With four laps to go, Kurt Busch got into the back of Regan Smith, which turned him up in front of Bowyer. Ryan Newman was also involved. Bowyer was able to salvage a seventeenth-place finish out of it, mainly because of the big pileups earlier in the race. He had led 31 laps. In the next race at Phoenix, Bowyer was taken out early in a multi-car crash on the backstretch. The Helping Hands (his pit crew) were able to repair the car fairly quickly, and he was able to finish 27th. In the
2011 Aaron's 499 at Talladega, Bowyer led the most laps with 38 and was being pushed by
Kevin Harvick on the last lap, dueling with Hendrick drivers
Jeff Gordon and
Mark Martin. Approaching the tri-oval,
Jimmie Johnson and
Dale Earnhardt Jr. squeezed to the far inside, and Johnson beat Bowyer to the line by 0.002 seconds (less than a foot) in a four-wide finish, tied with the finish of
Ricky Craven over
Kurt Busch in the
2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 for closest finish in Sprint Cup history. At Dover, in the Nationwide series, Bowyer was involved in a major crash on the last lap, with Bowyer going on his side. He and no one else were injured. Running third at the time, Bowyer was collected by Joey Logano (who was revealed through replays to have gotten loose on his own and overcorrected into the outside wall with no help from race winner Carl Edwards), after which he was then hit by a few other cars behind him. At New Hampshire, Bowyer led 49 of the last 51 laps and seemed to be on the road to victory, but with two laps to go, in a bizarre twist of fate,
Tony Stewart passed him to win in a role reversal from the 2010 race. On October 7, 2011, Bowyer signed a three-year contract to race the No. 15 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, starting in 2012. Bowyer did not make the Chase, but he won the Chase race at Talladega for the 2nd consecutive year, pulling a slingshot on Burton out of turn 4 on the final lap of the race. The margin of victory was 0.018 seconds. It was his last win with Richard Childress Racing.
2012: First season at MWR The 2012 season marked a new beginning for Bowyer as he moved from Richard Childress Racing to Michael Waltrip Racing, signing a three-year deal. Improvements at Michael Waltrip Racing with the addition of former RCR director of competition Scott Miller and veteran driver
Mark Martin as a teammate translated into Bowyer's best season statistically in the Sprint Cup Series. Bowyer's 2012 season began sourly, as his Daytona 500 qualifying time was disallowed, and he also ran out of fuel under green when he missed pit road during the 500. In March, he ended up starting a year-long rivalry with
Jeff Gordon at the Martinsville race. Gordon's team, Hendrick Motorsports, was going for its two-hundredth victory at the team's statistically best track. On a late green-white-checkered restart with two laps to go, Gordon was running first with Hendrick teammate
Jimmie Johnson in second and Bowyer third. Bowyer dove to the low side and made it three wide going into turn one, sending all three spinning around and giving the win to
Ryan Newman. Bowyer apologized for the contact, but later incidents at other 2012 races led to a heated rivalry. In June, at the
Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, California, Bowyer dominated the race, scoring his first road course victory as well as his first MWR win by holding off
Tony Stewart and
Kurt Busch. At the
AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta, Bowyer suffered battery issues but still managed to clinch a Chase berth with a 27th-place finish. He rebounded the following week at the
Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond, winning the race using fuel strategy despite being spun by
Juan Pablo Montoya mid-race. Bowyer's two wins positioned him sixth at the start of the
Chase for the Sprint Cup. In the Chase, he won at Charlotte after
Brad Keselowski made a late-race pit stop. Coming to the white flag at the
AdvoCare 500 (Phoenix) on November 11, 2012, Bowyer's rivalry with Jeff Gordon came to a head. Earlier in the race, Bowyer accidentally put Gordon into the wall. Gordon was then black-flagged for a failed attempt to cut Bowyer's tire. On the next-to-last lap, Gordon decided enough was enough and responded by intentionally wrecking Bowyer in turn three, collecting Joey Logano and Aric Almirola. After Gordon's car was parked behind his team's hauler, a member of Bowyer's team shoved Gordon from behind, and both teams scuffled. After Bowyer entered the pit area with his damaged car and noticed his team was not in his pit stall, he sprinted towards Gordon's hauler, attempting to enter it before being restrained by a single NASCAR official. The incident knocked Bowyer down to fourth place in the points standings and mathematically ended Bowyer's chance of winning the Championship. Bowyer was not penalized for his involvement in the fight, but his crew chief, Brian Pattie, was fined $35,000 after he expressed his displeasure with Gordon by using profanity on national television, forcing ESPN to apologize to viewers. The following week, Bowyer rebounded, finished second at Homestead (ironically behind Gordon), and completed the season with a career-best second-place finish in the final points, passing
Jimmie Johnson by one point, who was eliminated with a drive train malfunction. In victory lane at the race, Jeff Gordon apologized for his behavior at Phoenix and moved on from the incident.
2013 Bowyer started out 2013 by participating in the Rolex
24 Hours of Daytona, driving a
Ferrari 458 with
AF Corse/
Michael Waltrip Racing. The team finished 16th overall and 7th in class. At
Richmond International Raceway on September 7, 2013, Bowyer became the subject of controversy as, late in the race, his No. 15 Toyota spun; accusations were made that the spin was intentional, as part of an effort by MWR to ensure that
Martin Truex Jr. qualified for the
Chase for the Sprint Cup. NASCAR president
Mike Helton stated the following morning that scoring officials on the scene did not believe the spin was intentional, but that NASCAR was reviewing the incident. The following Monday evening, NASCAR docked all three MWR teams, including Bowyer, fifty driver/owner points. MWR was also fined $300,000. Despite the large penalty, Bowyer retained enough points to remain in the Chase. He had already clinched a spot in the Chase at the
Irwin Tools Night Race.
2014 in 2014 Bowyer did not participate in the
Sprint Unlimited as he did not win a pole during the 2013 season. His season started on a wild note when Bowyer was involved in a last-lap crash of the second race in the
Budweiser Duels, with Bowyer's car being sent airborne and performing a
barrel roll before landing on its wheels. At Darlington, Bowyer was the center of controversy when he got some contact with Kurt Busch. While racing Busch for a top-ten spot, Bowyer drove into the back of Kurt Busch, who spun out and wrecked. Busch replied by waving his hands in frustration at Bowyer under yellow. In a post-race interview, Bowyer apologized, stating, "You never want to wreck anybody. It was quite clear I got into the back of him and wrecked him." Two weeks later at Richmond, Bowyer tried to move to the lead on lap one but tapped pole-sitter
Kyle Larson, which forced Larson to drive from 43rd for a recovery. Later, his car caught fire on pit road during a pit stop. After an Atlanta engine blowup, Bowyer's hopes to make the Chase by consistency were dashed, and the next week, Bowyer missed the Chase by a slim three points. He would finish 19th in points In the Texas Nationwide race, Bowyer replaced
Elliott Sadler on lap seven due to a stomach illness; Bowyer qualified for Sadler for the race.
2015: Final season at MWR Bowyer started off the season with a top-ten at Daytona. Despite having a few top tens throughout the year, on August 19, 2015, it was announced that Bowyer and MWR would part ways after the season ended, with MWR not fielding full-time teams in 2016. On September 30, 2015, it was announced that
Tony Stewart (
Stewart–Haas Racing) would retire from the NASCAR Sprint Cup series after the 2016 season and negotiated a contract which will allow Bowyer to drive the No. 14 car in the 2017 season. On October 2, 2015, it was announced that Bowyer would move to
HScott Motorsports for the 2016 season, replacing
Justin Allgaier before making his transition to
Stewart–Haas Racing the following season. On December 15, 2015, a leaked photo on
Twitter showed that Bowyer would bring over his No. 15 and 5-Hour-Energy sponsorship from Michael Waltrip Racing to HScott Motorsports for his lone season with them. Bowyer made the Chase due to having enough points to qualify, but his Chase was hit heavily by a 25-driver and owner points penalty, a $75,000 fine, and the suspension of crew chief Billy Scott for three races. Bowyer appealed the penalties, but they were upheld by the appeals panel. With the penalty, Bowyer didn't advance to the second round of the Chase. In his last season with MWR, Bowyer was winless, scored just twelve top-tens, and finished sixteenth in the championship.
2016 Bowyer started the season on a low note, finishing 33rd after a loose wheel at Daytona. Bowyer struggled at Atlanta with his car down a cylinder, finishing 35th. Bowyer had some poor finishes, including a 38th-place finish at Texas, where he left the garage after the car was repairable. Bowyer later had his first top-ten finish this season, coming at Bristol with an eighth-place finish. Two weeks later, Bowyer finished a season-best seventh-place finish after avoiding massive crashes at Talladega. Coming back to Daytona, Bowyer would avoid crashes to finish ninth. Bowyer ended the season winless and with no top-fives, with only three top-tens and finishing 27th in the point standings. Bowyer returned to the Nationwide Series, now known as the Xfinity Series, at Chicagoland, driving the No. 88 for
JR Motorsports. He ended up starting the race in seventh and finishing the race in sixth.
2017: First season at Stewart–Haas Racing With Tony Stewart's retirement, Bowyer moved from the No. 15 HSM Chevy to the No. 14 Stewart–Haas Racing Ford Fusion. Bowyer started the season with a second-place finish in the second Can-Am Duel. Bowyer got his first top-ten at Las Vegas with a tenth-place finish. Bowyer had a significantly better race at Auto Club, finishing third and second at Bristol several races later. After no top fives, seven races later, he finished second at Sonoma behind teammate
Kevin Harvick, giving
Stewart–Haas Racing its second-ever 1-2 finish for the first time since 2011. Bowyer finished second again at the
Coke Zero 400 at Daytona the following week. Deja vu happened as a mechanical issue in the
Southern 500 at Darlington put Bowyer in a must-win situation at Richmond (just like in 2014) to make the Playoffs. He finished 24th after contact with
Matt Kenseth as Kenseth avoided an ambulance at the entry of pit road while under caution and eighteenth in the final points standings.
2018 Bowyer got off to a strong start in 2018, posting top-fifteen finishes in four of the first five events, including a third-place finish at the Atlanta race. On March 26, 2018, he broke a 190-race winless streak with a victory at the
spring Martinsville race, which gave him his first Playoff run since 2015. Bowyer then scored his second win of the season at the rain-shortened
June Michigan race. Despite bad finishes at
Las Vegas and
Dover, he has stayed consistent in the Playoffs, advancing to the Round of 8 before a crash at
Phoenix eliminated him from the Playoffs. Bowyer finished the season twelfth in points.
2019 At the conclusion of the
2019 Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race, Bowyer chopped
Ryan Newman's nose, which sent Bowyer into the wall during the cool-down lap. Following the race, Bowyer attacked Newman on pit road. Both drivers were called to the NASCAR hauler, but neither was penalized for the incident. During an autograph session at a
Bass Pro Shops store on May 23, 2019, a fan brought a pair of boxing gloves for both drivers to sign. Despite a string of inconsistent finishes and no wins during the season, Bowyer managed to make the 2019 playoffs after finishing fifth at
Indianapolis. On September 14, 2019, Bowyer won the pole at Las Vegas, his first pole since 2007. He finished fourth at the
Charlotte Roval to advance to the Round of 12. Bowyer was eliminated in the Round of 12 after the
Kansas race. He finished ninth in the final points standings despite not reaching victory lane as he did the season prior, his first top ten points finish since 2013. On December 4, 2019, Stewart–Haas Racing announced that Johnny Klausmeier would replace
Mike Bugarewicz as the crew chief of the No. 14 team in 2020.
2020: Final full-time season In March, Bowyer edged out
Jimmie Johnson to win the pole for the
Auto Club 400, the fourth of his career. He finished the race in 23rd place, one lap down. After accumulating seven top-ten finishes, including a runner-up finish at the spring Bristol race (his 82nd and final top-five), Bowyer qualified for the
2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. On October 8, 2020, Bowyer revealed that he would be joining the
Fox Sports broadcast booth for the 2021 season, stepping away from the driver's seat. Bowyer was eliminated from the playoffs after the round of 12. Bowyer scored his 226th and final top-ten at Martinsville and finished 14th at the season finale at Phoenix in his final race the following week. He finished twelfth in the points standings in his final season. Bowyer also co-hosted a podcast,
Rubbin is Racing, with
Dave Portnoy on
Barstool Sports.
2024: Return to racing On May 29, 2024, it was announced that Bowyer would drive the No. 7
Spire Motorsports truck at
Nashville after an eight-year hiatus from the
truck series. ==Clint Bowyer Racing==