Clint Bowyer picked a nice time to go out and dominate a race.

Victory Lane, meet Clint Bowyer. Clint, welcome to Victory Lane! Yes folks, one week after qualifying for the Race to the Chase, Clint Bowyer finally clinched his first Nextel Cup win. But let’s not get a head of ourselves just yet. Why don’t we rewind and look back at the race that was the Sylvania 300.

Bowyer began his winning performance straight out of the gate: before the end of the first lap, Bowyer passed pole winner Martin Truex Jr. for the lead. 27 laps later, Bowyer pulled his lead over Kurt Busch to over 2.67 seconds. However, that lead was soon wound down when NASCAR issued the first caution of the night: a competition caution due to the lack of practice sessions on Saturday. Many different strategies were tested during this caution period. Matt Kenseth gained 17 spots and Elliott Sadler advanced 11 when both drivers took two tires. This strategy did not hold long for Sadler though; he fell three spots on the restart to drivers who took four tires and by lap 60 Sadler fell to fifteenth after restarting second.

The second caution of the afternoon was dropped when Ward Burton spun and drove his car into Turn 3. His blown left front allowed the leaders, as well as the remainder of the field, to take on their second set of tires. This time around, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart tried their luck with two tires and claim the top two spots off pit road. Our leader up to this point, Bowyer, made no adjustments to his car, but took four fresh tires.

Bowyer soon reeled in the leaders, and three laps after his restart found himself inside the top three once again. Nearly 30 laps after claiming third from Ryan Newman, Bowyer took the lead away from Stewart. However, while this Cup contender was content with his car, Kurt Busch was not. Entering the race in the third slot, Busch reported a broken cylinder to his team. Busch later managed to bring home a 25th place finish, but fell to the bottom of the Chase standings, now 102 points out of first place.

Green flag stops saw the lead shuffle three times before all cars pitted, and Bowyer took the lead once again. The third caution flag of the night was issued when debris was spotted in Turn 1. A pack of cars, excluding the leaders, enter pit road to make a few more adjustments before the green flag was shown on lap 154. Unfortunately, nine laps later, the fourth caution came when Dave Blaney spun his car and received some rear damage. The cars that pitted under the debris caution stayed out while the leaders entered pit road. Bowyer restarted fourth, even though he was first off of pit road.

Kyle Busch was not even able to open his throttle all the way before another caution dropped, caused by Reed Sorenson, who spun as the leaders entered Turn 3. Caution period six soon followed five as Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun in Turn 1, brushing his car in the process. A quick four laps later, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson passed Kevin Harvick, who eventually fell to thirteenth, three laps later. Bowyer claimed the lead once again as he passed Kyle Busch on lap 188. One lap later, Dave Blaney connected with Regan Smith, collecting some driver’s side damage in the process.

With 100 laps left, Bowyer brought the field to the final restart of the race. Another round of green flag stops passed the lead to three different drivers, until Bowyer took the lead back for the final time, and pulled out a 4.71 second lead over second place Gordon. 10 laps until the finish, Bowyer opened the lead even further to 5.68 seconds.

I am sure by now you have realized down dominant Bowyer was: he lead 222 of the 300 laps, never dropped below eleventh, was only passed by other cars 12 times, and had an average running position of 1.57. Clint now sits fourth in the championship standings, and is only 15 points out of the lead.

“This is a car that we just built,” Bowyer’s crew chief, Gil Martin, later admitted. “We built it for these last 10 races actually, for the COT races.”

That lead, however, is being occupied with not one, but two drivers: Gordon and Johnson. Tony Stewart stayed in third, while Kyle Busch moved into fifth.

Bowyer and company showed a strong run with their new cars this weekend, Hendrick teammates, Johnson and Gordon continue their season long battle for the lead, and Kyle Busch is showing momentum in the standings after breaking into the Top Five.

How will the points look after Dover next weekend? Come back to the Checkered Flag to find out!

Questions and comments may be sent to larissasmith@sportsgrumblings.com