Clint Bowyer came into the Chase for the Championship as arguably the biggest outsider of the 12 title contenders but it took just 300 laps of the one-mile New Hampshire International Speedway to dispel those thoughts as the driver of the #07 Jack Daniels Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet converted pole position into an easy victory.
The second year Cup Series driver started the day 12th in the points table by virtue of him being the only one of the Chase drivers not to have won so far in 2007 but by the time the chequered flag fell on the Sylvania 300 Bowyer had not only broken his victory duck and taken the additional five bonus points for leading the most laps, he had also moved up to fourth in the overall standings just 15 points off top spot.
Having taken just his second career Bud Pole award on Friday Bowyer led the 43 car starting field to the green flag on a warm late summers day in New Hampshire and soon set about establishing an early lead. Little did the rest of the field know that, pit stop cycles aside, he would not relinquish top spot all afternoon.
Following Saturday's rain NASCAR planned on throwing a competition caution on lap 35 to allow teams to asses tyre wear and by that point Bowyer had established a lead of more than three seconds over Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and second place starter Martin Truex Jr. Quick pit work from the #07 crew kept Bowyer in the lead and once the green flag waved again Bowyer resumed his rocket-like progress as his pursuers, once again led by Busch and Stewart, began to fall away.
The second of seven yellow flags waved just before lap 70 when Ward Burton slapped the wall and, in an effort to push Bowyer back into traffic, several drivers including Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards elected to take just two fresh tyres during the subsequent pitstops meaning that Bowyer would take the lap 72 restart in fourth position.
![Clint Bowyer and crew chief Gil Martin at Daytona. [Pic Credit Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/190200.jpg)
