NASCAR pit road penalties leave Clint Bowyer wondering ‘what if’

Clint Bowyer isn't sure if he had anything for Brad Keselowski or Chase Elliott, but he sure would have liked to find out.

The defending winner of the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway had another contending car on Sunday but cost himself a chance with two late speeding penalties on pit road.

The Stewart-Haas Racing veteran started 10th and raced into sixth but was derailed by speeding penalties on lap 315 and 374.

He could only rally back to seventh.

"I guess we need to get our stuff together on being on the same page with that pit road speed," Bowyer said.  "It’s such an important thing and such a big part of this style of racing, where track position is everything."
 

Martinsville is already one of the toughest pit roads when it comes to speeding due to tight corners, but Bowyer also cited not being able to practice pit road entry during Saturday practice since the Truck Series racers are staged on the pit stalls at the tiny Virginia half mile.

"We push it to the limit, but it’s so hard to practice pit road speed," he said. "You’ve got trucks on pit road when you’re trying to practice that.  I’m not making any excuses, it’s just when you’re trying to pinch every little thing out of it, it was hard this week to practice pit road speed because of that."

Ultimately, the penalties likely didn't cost himself a win just because Keselowski and Elliott seemed so stout.

But again, he wishes he didn't have to wonder 'what if.'

“I don’t think anybody obviously had anything once the 2 or the 9 made some adjustments there early and were really fast," Bowyer said.  "I think we were a top three car for sure, but we kept beating ourselves.”
 

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