Bowyer has finished NASCAR best 20th or better in 15 straight races heading into Pocono

Clint Bowyer is 30/1 to capture his first Pocono win this week

CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 15 Toyota Let’s Go Places Camry crew chief Brian Pattie is looking to see vast improvement from his team’s 15th-place finish in its last visit to Pocono Raceway. Pattie has high expectations for his team, but knows there is still work to be done before heading into the final 10 race stretch to determine a champion.

The No. 15 team is second in points with a 107 point advantage over 11th place with six races before the Chase for the Sprint Cup field is set. Clint Bowyer is one of three drivers in the top-10 still chasing his first victory of the 2013 season which would help to secure his Chase future and bonus points for the final 10 races.

The No. 15 team still holds all four of its NASCAR allowed testing dates available – a luxury Pattie attributes to the team’s position in the standings. That is about to change as the team is scheduled to test every week in August.

BRIAN PATTIE ON HIS GOAL FOR POCONO: “Improve on performance from our first visit to Pocono is our primary goal. We ran sub-par there and Indy the last two races that are close in setups, so we have to work on our program. And, in doing so we’ve changed a lot of stuff, so I’m looking forward to this weekend to see if we can improve. We have a lot of things that we’re working on. Execution is one thing and set up is the other. We’re really trying to work on some things now so that we’re ready for those last 10 races.

LEARNING FROM INDY: “I don’t think Indy went as well as we expected. It went about the same as it did in 2012, which wasn’t all that great to be honest. As a company we didn’t run very well. No cars in the top-10. When you have weekends like that you come back and bounce ideas off the other crew chiefs and as an organization we need to work on our package right now. If we get a car that runs up front and two that don’t then we can look at setups, but in this case when you have all three that didn’t run up to our expectations then we have to work on a bunch of stuff.”

POINTS: “Our main goal right now is to continue to gap ourselves to 11th place. I want to lock in early to the Chase. I want to lock in before Bristol or at Bristol and that’s been the goal for quite some time and we are still on that path. I’m happy we are second in points – that means that we’re doing something right. The consistency is there, but we need to execute and work on our setups to run in the top-five more consistently and at places outside of a short track, road course or superspeedway. Intermediates play a big role in the Chase and right now our intermediate package is maybe even a little further behind then we were last year.”

TESTING: “We have multiple tests coming in August. I think our team is testing every week leading into September, so hopefully we’ll get a lot of data, but it’s what you do with the data that counts. Being second in points gives you a little leeway as far as trying to save your four tests for the last 10 races. That’s still happening. One of our teams is going to the Goodyear tire test in Atlanta next week with a new generation car. That test needs to go well. We have our first scheduled test as an organization at Chicago here in a few weeks, so if we can save our four tests and get both the 15 and 56 teams in the Chase then I like our chances. Right now we need to work on our intermediate package and testing two in the next three weeks should help.”

NOTES:
Let’s Go Streaking! Bowyer has finished 20th or better in every race since Fontana – a streak of 15 races. The next longest top-20 streak by any other driver is 10 by Kevin Harvick.

Chassis: Primary Chassis No. 733 finished sixth at Phoenix and 15th at Pocono is 2013. Backup chassis No. 727 served as a backup at Phoenix, Bristol, Richmond, Pocono and New Hampshire, but not raced.

- Michael Waltrip Racing