KANSAS CITY, Kansas — Clint Bowyer admits his frustrations got the best of him last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway when he got upset with his team and crew chief Mike Bugarewicz after being collected in a crash.
“Those are frustrating races,’’ Bowyer said Friday at Kansas Speedway of restrictor-plate races at Talladega and Daytona. “It’s extremely nerve-racking. To be dead honest with you, when I’m at home, there’s only two tracks that I’m scared of. There’s only two tracks that in the back of my mind where I think I could lose my life. Those are the only two. When things get out of control, you’ve got to remember that. We’re still out there risking our lives. There’s a lot at stake.’’
Bowyer, whose last win came in Oct. 2012, also added his frustration was related to not having a chance to win.
“You get down to the end of those things, there’s a point, you can feel it as a fan, you can feel it in the car,’’ he said. “There’s a point in those races where you have to be in position, you have to be inthe hunt.
“The one common denominator there is that I knew and felt strongly that going into that race that a Ford was going to win that race. In the back of my mind, there’s a handful of tracks that we can competitively win at and beat these Toyotas right now and that was one of them. Just a lot of things going on there and confusion was definitely one of them, that’s for damn sure.’’
Brad Keselowski won, giving Ford its seventh consecutive restrictor-plate win.
Bowyer unleashed his anger in an expletive-laced rant on the radio after he was involved in a crash that brought out the caution on Lap 157.
“How in the … did we end in the … back. Stupid.’’
Bugarewicz asked: “Did you lose oil pressure or anything?’’
“Front end is knocked off it,’’ Bowyer said.
“We’re going to work on it,’’ Bugarewicz said.
“Maybe we can spend some … more time in the pits,’’ Bowyer yelled.
“We tore up a lot of other … this year,’’ Bugarewicz said.
“I’m not taking this …’’ Bowyer said.
“These guys don’t want to hear either. Let’s work on this,’’ Bugarewicz said.
Bowyer climbed out of his car and had a brief heated conversation with Bugarewicz before walking away.
Asked if he would consider a crew chief change for next year, Bowyer said Friday: “It’s time to start thinking about that. At the end of the day, it’s all about depth in an organization and building an organization. Who knows? There could be a lot of different things that happen in the off-season for Stewart-Haas. You don’t know that. I don’t know that. I think time will tell and paint a lot clearer picture and announcements were made.’’
