Clint Bowyer Wins Fuel-Poker In Charlotte: Exciting Three-Way Battle For The Championship ~ THE AUTOMOTIVE WORLD BLOG

Clint Bowyer celebrates his third win of the season

Clint Bowyer won the 31st Running the Sprint Cup Series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway with a nearly empty tank. Thus Bowyer won in a thrilling race against fuel poker Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson. For Bowyer, it was the first win in Charlotte and the third victory this season.

Fuel saving mode was successful

The race started quite turbulent with three caution periods in the first 35 of 334 laps. Then leader Brad Keselowski took first place, the pole-sitter Greg Biffle had previously occupied. From the 50th Round the three leaders in the championship given the race. Keselowski led before Johnson and Hamlin. After the fifth and final race stop every team were again turned in a fuel window and Keselowski by far the most laps led.

In the 276th Keselowski had the first round of the top riders flying green flag for refueling in the pits. Two laps later, Bowyer and another two rounds followed after Johnson came to the service. Hamlin was the last of the top drivers in the round picked up 281 fuel and fresh tires.

Clint Bowyer had the best fuel consumption and won

On lap 311 Bowyer led before Hamlin and Johnson, while Keselowski had to do another stop. The crew chiefs condemned the three leaders to save fuel in order to finish with a few stop the race. The tactic brought the three pilots have the desired effect, because the poker game went on. Hamlin could still catch up huge, but Bowyer drove by a margin of 0.417 seconds for the eighth time in his career, the first to cross the finish line.

Hamlin finished second ahead of Johnson, with the last drop of fuel and drove over 15 seconds down on the line. Only Biffle in fourth, and Kyle Busch and Mark Martin reached the finish on the lead lap. The rest of the field was at least one lap behind far behind. The top 10 was completed by Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Junior. Keselowski was able to pull up his final pit stop only from rank 14 to 11.

Regan Smith, who was sitting in for the injured Dale Earnhardt Junior at the wheel of the number 88, finished his first race for Hendrick Motorsports after technical problems in the garage. In his comeback after doping ban reached AJ Allmendinger ranked 24th in Phoenix Chevrolet.

Currently, only three drivers fighting for the title
After five of the ten Chase races Keselowski leads at halftime of the playoffs only seven points ahead of Johnson. Hamlin is still third, who could shorten the gap to 15 points. Thus, it should now look for a three-way battle for the Sprint Cup 2012 title. Bowyer was able to push forward with his third win of the season in fourth place, missing him but already has 28 points. Seven other counter is back Kasey Kahne. Her seven remaining candidates have a huge gap to the leader. Defending champion Tony Stewart took the 13th Space and is a full 50 points behind leader Keselowski.

Result:
Charlotte Motor Speedway