Clint Bowyer stumbled through uncomfortable interviews during a Tuesday visit to ESPN’s SportsCenter, his first public comments since Michael Waltrip Racing was given the largest penalties in NASCAR history.
“We’re not in jail, we’re not dead, and hopefully, with any luck at all, there will be a liquor store open when we get outta here (Tuesday),” Bowyer said.
Bowyer said the MWR as a group deserved their penalties and that they had “a lot of proving and a lot of making up to do.”
Bowyer largely was unaffected by the penalties, however, despite a suspicious spin that triggered a controversial sequence of events. He was docked 50 points from the regular-season standings but drives into the Chase with the same 2,000 points he had before the penalties were announced Monday night.
Bowyer apologized several times during his first interview, but when pressed on why he was apologizing, Bowyer danced around the question.
“No, let’s not dig too much into this,” Bowyer said when asked if his apology referred to the spin. “I’ve dealt with a lot of opinions and a lot of things that happened. I gave my interview after the race as to what happened. We’ve been penalized with the biggest penalty in NASCAR history, and we’re going to get through this as a race team.”
Bowyer acknowledged calling to apologize to Ryan Newman (“I felt horrible,” he said) and also apologized to any fans “who don’t agree and are upset.”
But pushed to explain his comments further, Bowyer refused to explain himself.
“It’s a bad deal all the way around for MWR,” he said. “Again, we’ve been penalized for this, we stand by our actions, we own up to them, and we’re going to get through this together and go on.”
ESPN NASCAR analyst Ricky Craven, a former driver, challenged Bowyer when the driver began talking about how much pressure there is on teams during the upcoming 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which will begin Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
Craven, appearing emotional, said he didn’t think Bowyer understood real pressure.
“You want to talk about pressure? You look at the economy and the people that spend their hard-earned money to fly to Richmond, to buy a ticket, to participate in the weekend, and they might have felt like they got robbed,” Craven said. “I’m only bringing up that point to suggest this is much bigger than any one of us.
“What happened Saturday night put into play the integrity of the sport. It bothered me a little bit when you said, ‘Let me tell you something, the pressure that’s involved in the sport, you might not understand.’”
Answered Bowyer: “There’s tons of pressure on the sport; there’s tons of pressure on the drivers. I would think if anybody would know, it would be you. I apologize that you don’t understand the pressure. It heats up in a big way in the Chase.”
Bowyer said he’d enter the garage at Chicagoland this weekend like normal and approach it as he does every weekend, though he admitted the events of the past few days would make it “harder.”
“I don’t want this story to be the story of the Chase,” he said.
In a later interview, Bowyer emphatically stated, “There will be no shenanigans, no crazy things happening. That’s the sad thing about what happened Saturday. This Chase has been heating up for the past month and a half. I don’t want what happened to take away from one of the most competitive seasons we’ve ever had. I feel like anyone can win this.”
Bowyer also reaffirmed that Michael Waltrip Racing deserved their penalties.
“There was no denying everything that happened for MWR,” Bowyer said. “It’s a huge goose egg for everyone at MWR. It’s a huge setback for all of us. It’s not something we’re all proud of. Certainly it was a bad day for all of us.”
During his second interview earlier in the day, Bowyer was asked directly whether the spin was intentional.
“No,” he said.
On the topic of the mysterious command to “itch it,” Bowyer showed off a poison oak rash on his arm and said crew chief Brian Pattie was teasing him all night about it.
When asked how he managed to spin out with no one around him, Bowyer avoided the question.
“How did we go (from) having a car fast enough to lead the race to (going) straight backwards?” he said. “Trust me, when the 15 is on the racetrack, it’s going forward. And if it doesn’t, something is wrong.”
Is Bowyer worried about retaliation from Jeff Gordon, who missed the Chase and has feuded with Bowyer in the past?
“If you want to talk scoreboards and everything else, I wish I could take credit for the 24 not making it,” Bowyer said.
“If somebody wants to retaliate, I’m a big boy.”
In his third interview, Bowyer raised the issue of a caution flag flying when Jimmie Johnson spun and hit the wall, benefitting Gordon, Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate. The field was in the middle of green-flag pit stops when the yellow came, ultimately resulting in Bowyer going a lap down and Gordon getting back on the lead lap.
Bowyer used that as an example of things happening in a race that can appear to help a teammate, comparing it to his spin that helped his MWR teammate Martin Truex Jr. but hurt Newman.
During an online chat late Tuesday afternoon, Bowyer was asked if he had spoken to Truex and how he was feeling. Bowyer responded: “It was definitely a bad thing, I felt bad for him. He’s a teammate and friend. You hate to see it. But I think it was the right decision. I didn’t know when I got out of the car, everything that had happened. But once you get home and realize everything, it was the right decision. I was happy for Ryan but sad for Martin.”
Ellen J. Horrow contributed to this report. © 2013 USA TODAY. All rights reserved.