NASCAR Cup Series: 5 drivers who Christopher Bell could replace in 2020
By Asher Fair
Clint Bowyer
It is possible that Christopher Bell will end up at Stewart-Haas Racing but as one of Daniel Suarez’s three teammates as opposed to his replacement, and this could happen if he replaces Clint Bowyer behind the wheel of the #14 Ford.
Bowyer replaced Tony Stewart behind the wheel of the #14 car, which was the #14 Chevrolet when Stewart drove it, ahead of the 2017 season.
While the career of the 38-year-old Emporia, Kansas native has been somewhat rejuvenated during his time driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, especially since he earned his first two victories since the 2012 season last year, there is still an overall performance gap to teammate Kevin Harvick and even to teammate Aric Almirola, who only began driving for the team last year.
While Harvick is the team’s oldest driver, he has no plans of leaving the team or NASCAR as a whole anytime soon, nor should he considering the fact that he is a perennial championship contender who is one of the favorites to win pretty much every race on the schedule.
Bowyer is Stewart-Haas Racing’s second oldest driver, and the only teammate who he has beaten since joining the four-car Ford team is Danica Patrick, whose career driving for a top-tier team is statistically arguably the worst if not the worst in NASCAR history. He beat Patrick in the 2017 season, as he finished in 18th place in the championship standings while Patrick finished in 28th before she retired.
While the 2018 season was a breakthrough season for Bowyer in that it was the season during which he put his 190-race win drought in its grave, it could still be considered a year during which he underperformed in that all three of his teammates finished in the top seven in the championship standings while he finished in 12th place.
So far this season, Bowyer sits in 11th place in the championship standings, and the only teammate he leads is Suarez, and he doesn’t lead by him much with Suarez sitting in 14th. Unless he can secure a few more victories this year, he could be at risk of losing his ride to Bell if Bell breaks away from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota to compete in the Cup Series next year.