Clint Bowyer gives RCR first Nationwide win of the year with victory at Daytona

Bowyer races to first Nationwide win of season

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Clint Bowyer’s first victory of the season gave Richard Childress Racing a much-needed boost.

Bowyer won the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway on Friday night, holding off Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered finish.

The defending series champion was the leader when a four-car accident brought out the caution with six laps to go in the Subway Jalapeno 250. That set up a final two-lap overtime sprint, and Bowyer lined up inside of Edwards for the double-file restart.

With Busch pushing him from behind, Bowyer raced to the front. He didn’t have to deal with a challenge from Busch because an accident in the fourth turn brought out a race-ending caution, giving RCR its first win of the year.

Busch finished second, followed by Edwards, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne.

“It’s been tough this year,” said Bowyer, winning for the first time in six starts in the second-tier series. “It’s been tough on Richard, tough on everybody. Just real proud of everybody at RCR.”

Bowyer’s win might not do much to soothe Childress’ problems in the Sprint Cup series, where Bowyer (15th), Jeff Burton (16th), Casey Mears (20th) and Kevin Harvick (27th) are all out of championship contention. Then again, a trip to Victory Lane could raise morale across the board.

And this one wasn’t a fluke. Bowyer had the car to beat much of the night. He started on the pole and spent much of the night running up front. He moved to the front for good with about 30 laps to go, often driving away from his competitors down the backstretch.

“That was the best we had,” Busch said. “Clint’s car was better than ours tonight. We have some work to do before coming back here.

Brad Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Brian Vickers, Justin Allgaier, David Ragan and Harvick.