Catchfence

No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet

Race Notes and Quotes

This Week’s Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet at Atlanta Motor Speedway … Clint Bowyer will pilot chassis No. 368 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This Chevrolet Impala, built new for 2011, has seen action twice this season. The first time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Bowyer brought home a 13th-place finish after starting 26th and most recently at Michigan International Speedway when Bowyer came through the field to finish eighth after qualifying 35th.

Career Atlanta Stats … This week’s 500 miler marks Bowyer’s 206th career NSCS start.

• In 10 NSCS starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Bowyer owns five top-10 finishes.
• He has completed 95 percent (10,053 of 10,587) of the total laps contested at AMS during his career.
• The Emporia, Kan., native has led 58 total laps at AMS.
• Bowyer owns an average starting position of 16th and an average finishing position of 15.5.
• His best efforts at the Georgia facility are four sixth-place finishes in the March and October 2007 events, the March 2008 event and the March 2009 event.

Red and Yellow … The familiar Cheerios/Hamburger Helper paint scheme will return to Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevrolet this weekend in the Peach State.

Open Happiness … Coca-Cola will be hosting their annual Coca-Cola Racing Family Ride Along on Thursday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. 15 grand prize winners and their guests from various customer and consumer promotions throughout the year will have the opportunity to take a few hot laps around AMS with the Coca-Cola Racing Family members including Bowyer and RCR teammate Jeff Burton.

Double Duty … Bowyer will jump in the No. 2 Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet Silverado this Friday for his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start of the season with Kevin Harvick Inc. The Friday night race will be Bowyer’s second NCWTS appearance at AMS. In his first NCWTS event at the Hampton Ga., based facility in 2007, Bowyer brought home a fifth-place finish after starting from the 12th position. In June, Bowyer took the Georgia-based company to victory lane at his home track, Kansas Speedway.

Thunder Valley … After starting 16th, Bowyer and the No. 33 Hamburger Helper Chevrolet team fought a loose-handling Chevrolet all night and finished 26th in the IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Points Racing … Bowyer, still deep in the hunt for a spot in the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, is currently 12th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings. He now sits just 22 markers out of 10th with two races remaining until the cutoff for the Chase.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTES:

This is the first year that we have run only one race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Does it feel a little strange?

“It does. It’s a fun race track. I think it’s an important race track for us. I can’t wait to get there and race. It’s very competitive and I always race well there. It puts on a good show for the fans and that’s item number one right now.”

Compared to other mile-and-a-half tracks, does Atlanta Motor Speedway compare to anything else we’ve raced on?

“No, it’s fast and very slick. It’s multi-lined. Most of the tracks that are that fast, are one-lined race tracks. Atlanta (Motor Speedway) is an exception to that rule. You can race up high, down low, in the middle and all over the place.”

Moving the date to Labor Day weekend seems to generate more excitement. Can you tell the difference?

“I think this will be a big show for them. Sometimes pulling back a date isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes you have to make it one big show instead of two mediocre shows. I think it’s more important to have something go off as a huge success than it is to try to thin it out. I think the excitement level will be at a premium and things will get back to what we’re accustomed to seeing there.”

Speeds are fast during qualifying, how much do they slow down during the race?

“They slow down a bunch. Even from the first laps on the track, the grip level isn’t there that you would feel at other race tracks, but somehow the speed is. It kind of plays tricks on your mind because it feels like you’re sliding and you’re a little out of control, but halfway through the lap the car is accepting the speed and you hammer down. The first couple laps on the track, you have to adjust yourself. ”