Bowyer still has something to prove

It's hard to say which is more impressive: winning the first race of the NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup or coming from 42nd to 12th in a race at Dover International Speedway.
Clint Bowyer did both in consecutive weeks. He entered the Chase as the only driver in the top 12 without a win. He quickly erased that by winning the race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
But he followed the first win of his Cup career with a disappointing qualifying run at Dover and a 42nd-place start.
He worked his way through the field and posted a 12th-place finish. He left Dover fifth in the Cup standings and only 18 points out of first.
Bowyer said he still can't believe there were some who doubted if he belonged in the Chase after going through the first 26 races without a win.
"We went into this thing with people asking do you really feel like you deserve to be in the Chase. My answer to that question was heck yeah," said Bowyer, driver of the No. 07 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. "It wasn't like we were 12th going into the thing. We were ninth. We beat three teams out of the Chase and yet people were still saying that the 13th guy belonged in it."
That 13th guy was Dale Earnhardt Jr. He missed the Chase for the second time in his Cup career. Bowyer said he didn't feel like Earnhardt Jr. was ever going to threaten for his spot in the Chase.
"He had a long ways to go to catch me," Bowyer said. "I felt like we deserved it and I feel like winning that first race of the Chase really proved not only to ourselves, but to everybody else that we belonged here. It's been such a confidence-booster and momentum builder going into the rest of the year."
That confidence was evident in the Dover race. Bowyer's team could have folded after qualifying 42nd. Instead it rallied and gave Bowyer a car that he say could have won the race.
"Last week at Dover, it very easily could have taken the wind out of our sails qualifying dead last," Bowyer said. "We went from the heroes to zeros just like that. We were able to bounce back from that and we had a car to win. We really did. We were less than half way through the race and we were passing for sixth from dead last . So it really says a lot about how strong our race team is and how we're learning. That's what championships is all about is being able to turn a bad day into a good one and we are on our way to doing that."