By Bruce Martin

PA SportsTicker Contributing Editor

CONCORD, North Carolina (Ticker) - Clint Bowyer realizes he needs some help if the second-year NASCAR Nextel Cup driver is going to win the “Chase for the Championship.” But he’s certainly having the most fun of the 12 drivers that started NASCAR’s 10-race chase.

Bowyer finished second behind race-winner and Nextel Cup leader Jeff Gordon in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Although he is third in the Chase, 78 points out of the lead, the race driver from Emporia, Kansas is having an outstanding season even if it doesn’t result in the Nextel Cup title.

“It’s very gratifying,” said Bowyer, one of three drivers at Richard Childress Racing. “We’re in our second year together. We’ve got five races to go and stay energized. Right now, that’s what it is going to take a win a championship.”

Bowyer is only one of three drivers less that are less that 100 points out of the top spot. Jeff Gordon leads the Chase at the halfway point with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson 68 points back.

Bowyer lurks back in third, 78 out of the lead but a whopping 120 points ahead of fourth-place chaser Tony Stewart.

The fun demeanor of the Kansan wears well on Bowyer’s Chase competitors.

“He’s incredible,” Gordon said. “He is impressing a lot of people right now. When you are going to measure a driver’s talent and ability you look at consistency to run on a lot of different tracks. He’s very consistent with zero DNFs (did not finish) and you have to be impressed with that. To me, the real key to one of the top drivers is when the moment comes are you capable of stepping it up.

“He’s doing that and it’s impressive.”

While Bowyer entered The Chase as the last of the 12 drivers that qualified following the 26th race of the season at Richmond in September, he made the most of his opportunity by winning the first race in the Chase at New Hampshire the following week.

Since then he has backed it up with some impressive performances that still has him in legitimate contention to win the title.

And he is the best of the three Richard Childress Racing (RCR) drivers battling in The Chase which leads to the question, is it just as important to beat the other two RCR drivers as it is the other drivers in the field?

“You hope so - that’s what your job is,” Bowyer said. “Of course you want to out-run the guys but you have a job to do. There are a lot of other cars out there. There are 42 other cars you want to beat. But it’s no different than anybody else. You want to beat them but you want to help them, too.

“So we are picking up our game. We’re coming. We’ve just got a lot ways to go and we have to pick up our program a little more.”

Late in the race on what looked like the final restart of the race, Gordon was being hounded by Hendrick teammate Kyle Busch for the lead when the green flag fell before Dodge driver Ryan Newman went to the high-side of Turn 2 to take the lead.

It was a startling move and looked like Newman was going to steal the victory.

Two laps later, Newman hit the wall in an equally stunning move.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Bowyer said. “It looked to me like he was going to win his first race of the year and then ‘Whammy.’”

So as the race prepared for a “green-white-checkered flag” finish, Gordon was able to drive away from Busch, who was eventually passed by Bowyer for second place.

“I think Jeff has been the guy to beat all year long,” Bowyer said. “Both those guys have been at the top of the game, the whole organization has.

“Second, it sucks. I’m not going to lie to you. Man, what could I have done different to win? I was lucky to finish second. Certainly Kyle was faster there at the end. I thought he had something there for the 24 at the end. He must have run out of talent. Other than that, it was a fun night.”

Bowyer is within reach of the title but knows it’s a daunting task to finish ahead of Gordon and Johnson over the final five races. He know’s he can do it; he’ll just need a little help.

“For me and my team and the organization, we’ve just got to pick it up a little bit,” Bowyer said. “They are going to have to stub their toe a little bit for us to catch them.

“I’ve just got to go out and win races and lead the most laps and run them down because they are going to finish right behind you. So it’s going to take quite a bit of luck, but, you know, we’ve seen stranger things happen.”