Driver: Clint Bowyer
Car: No. 33 Cheerios Chevrolet Impala
Track: Texas Motor Speedway (April 19, 2010)
Bio: You never know what you’ll find out at the Racecar Graveyard, and this week’s honoree is one of those you wouldn’t expect to see nestled among the tall trees and brush on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s homestead.
Clint Bowyer’s Cheerios Chevrolet is one of those.
The yellow and red No. 33 was the victim of circumstance in the 2010 spring race at Texas. With just 18 laps to go and coming off a restart, Tony Stewart got pushed high in Turns 1 and 2. He was still dealing with that by the time the field got around to Turns 3 and 4, backing up in a three-wide logjam. As the pack came off Turn 4, Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle got underneath Smoke’s machine, which got him loose.
Stewart tapped the right rear of Gordon’s car and started to slide, only to have Carl Edwards send him the rest of the way into a spin. Stewart collected Gordon, Edwards and several others on the way to the bottom of Turn 1, and Bowyer was smack in the middle of the congestion. He was squeezed into the outside wall by Paul Menard’s car and a few others piled in for good measure. After starting a solid eighth, Bowyer wound up finishing 36th that day.
Incidentally, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had slipped past Stewart on the inside just before they reached Turn 3 and was therefore clear of the mess that resulted. Boss Man Dale would finish eighth on the day.
The car was offered to Dale Jr. by team owner Richard Childress. It resides in an idyllic spot in the Graveyard, where it serves as a backdrop for all of nature’s glory.