NASCAR: Who’s Hot And Who’s Not Heading Into Richmond

Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

NOT – Clint Bowyer

Things were looking good for Clint Bowyer and the No. 15 team when they took the green flag Sunday night in Atlanta. Bowyer went into the night holding the 15th seed in the chase standings with a seven point lead over 16th place Greg Biffle and 33 points over 17th place Kyle Larson. Bowyer’s night then came crashing down when his shifter broke inside of the No. 15 machine which sent him to the garage and put him more than 20 laps down to the field. Kasey Kahne would go onto win the race while Biffle, Ryan Newman and Kyle Larson all finished inside of the top-10. The end result is that Bowyer now finds himself in a hole entering the final race in Richmond. Bowyer currently sits 17th and is 23 points behind Biffle for the final spot. The good news is that Bowyer had won at Richmond twice in his career and if he does that Saturday night he will be in the chase, the bad news is that his road to the chase could have been a lot easier had bad luck not struck in Atlanta.