Event/Date: Sunoco American Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 – August 2, 2009
Venue: Pocono Raceway – Long Pond, Pa.

NOTES:
• This Week’s Hartford Chevrolet at Pocono … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 268 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new for 2009, this Chevrolet Impala SS debuted at Dover in June where Bowyer finished 11th and followed that up by posting a 10th-place finish at Michigan two weeks later.

• Stat Facts …
o Pocono Facts … In seven NSCS starts at Pocono, Bowyer has a sixth-place finish, which came in this race last year, to call his best. Additionally, the 30-year-old driver has three top-10 finishes, an average starting position of 22.4, an average finish of 19.6 and has led nine laps of competition at the 2.5-mile, three-turn oval.
o Rearview Mirror … While their 18th-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week wasn’t exactly what Clint Bowyer and the No. 33 team were hoping for, the Chase for the Sprint Cup hopefuls managed to escape the Brickyard with minimal point loss thanks to the misfortunes of others.
o Get to the Points … Bowyer enters Pocono 16th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship point standings. With six races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup kicks off in September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bowyer sits 151 markers behind 12th-place point man Matt Kenseth and 204 behind eighth-place Kasey Kahne. The top 12 in the Sprint Cup Series points following the September 12 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway are locked into NASCAR’s 12-team Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff field.
o Through 20 Races … Over the season’s first 20 races, Bowyer has accumulated three top-five and seven top-10 finishes, an average start of 17.9 and an average finish of 17.2. The two-time NSCS winner has led 16 laps of competition and has completed 5,290 of the 5, 261 (94.1 percent) laps contested thus far.
o RCR at Pocono … In 102 starts at Pocono, RCR team owner Richard Childress has two wins, both of them coming with Dale Earnhardt, who won the Summer 500 on July 19, 1987 and the Miller Genuine Draft 500 on July 18, 1993. Additionally, RCR has earned one pole, 12 top-five and 42 top-10 finishes at the uniquely-shaped three-turn speedway. Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s top division, contributed two of those top 10s from 1976-1980.
o The Collective RCR … In 20 races this season, RCR-prepared Sprint Cup Series entries have notched seven top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. The No. 29 team kicked off the 2009 season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. RCR-prepared cars have also completed 21,759 laps with four different drivers including Jeff Burton, Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears. Meanwhile, RCR teams have been atop the leaderboard for 98 laps and all four teams have earned just over of $12.1 million combined purse money in 2009.
o Two Months Ago … Although a late-race, green-flag run cost Clint Bowyer and his No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper team a shot at a top-10 finish, their never-quit attitude allowed the Emporia, Kan., native to rally and take the checkered flag 12th when the series last raced at Pocono in June.
• Color Change … Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevrolet will replace its traditional yellow and red colors this weekend in Pocono in favor of The Hartford’s white, blue and maroon paint scheme. Pocono marks the third and final race where the Hartford, Conn.,-based corporation will be featured as the primary sponsor this season.
• Getting Warmer … The Hartford will host a scavenger hunt surrounding the race events in Pocono this weekend. For more information, log on to www.TheHartfordRacing.com.
• Ride Along for a Good Cause … Help support Special Olympics and enter to win a 2009 Coca-Cola Racing Ride Along and attend the race Labor Day weekend in Atlanta! Log on to www.events.org/SpecialOlympicsCokeRideAlong for more details.
• Trackside Live … Fans can see Bowyer live on Friday, July 31 at 7 p.m. when he makes an appearance on this week’s installment of Trackside Live. The show will take place from the SPEED Stage, located outside the garage, and will air live on SPEED.
• Mark Your Calendars … In honor of its 40th anniversary, RCR will host a Fan Day at the Welcome, N.C. complex on Thursday, Oct. 22 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Activities include driver and pit crew autograph sessions, self-guided tours of RCR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide as well as ECR’s engine shop, radio remotes, musical entertainment, pit crew competition, viewing of the DALE movie, question-and-answer session with team owner Richard Childress and much more. General admission to RCR’s Fan Day is just $5, which will benefit the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.
• Fire Up the Team, Fire Up the Grill … General Mills has teamed up with Clorox® and Coca-Cola® to kick off an online sweepstakes where one lucky winner will win a Grand Prize trip for two to watch the big race in Concord, N.C. on October 17, 2009. The trip includes roundtrip airfare for two from the major airport nearest to the winner’s home to Charlotte, one double occupancy hotel room for two nights, $500 cash, two tickets to the General Mills suite, and a meet and greet with driver Clint Bowyer. Enter today for your chance to win at www.SummerGrillingMadeSimple.com
• Catch the Action … The Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway will be televised live, Sunday, August 2 beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on ESPN and will broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 21st of 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races is scheduled for Friday, July 31 and will be televised live on ESPN2 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTES:
Pocono is a one-of-a-kind race track. What did you think the first time you saw the track?
“Unbelievable. It’s big. The straightaways are so long. I think they wasted a lot of asphalt on straightaways. As a race car driver, I like the corners. That’s where you make or lose a lot of time, but it’s still a fun race track. Pocono is obviously very, very unique. There’s no perfect set-up at Pocono. You have to give up a little in one corner to be good in the others and it takes a while to figure out where to be in that situation. You have to decide which one to give up a little in and which one to take from. You kind of have to play it by ear and see how the car reacts and make adjustments from there.”

How tricky is Pocono?
“It can be real tricky. It seems like it stretches out and when it does it’s a huge race track. There’s no perfect setup, all the corners are different. You have to be able to adapt and keep your track position in order to be successful there. The tunnel turn is the toughest turn there. It’s flat and you carry so much speed into it. It’s hard to get your car to rotate and you have to get to the gas quick. It’s one of the key corners there. I’d say that the third corner coming onto the front straightaway is the most important because the front straightaway is so long. You’ve got to carry as much speed as you can off the corner.”