For most NASCAR fans that remember the 2012 championship will remember it as a head to head fight between Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson with Brad coming out on top. But what gets forgotten is that Clint Bowyer actually had a realistic chance at the title as well. Here is his story, in 2004-2005 he'd race for Richard Childress in the Xfinity Series before being promoted to Cup in 2006. 2 years later he'd finish 3rd and 5th in the points. And then from 2009-2011 he'd wouldn't finish better than 10th so he would join the growing Michael Waltrip Racing team driving the number 15 5 hour energy Toyota. And it wouldn't start off start off super good. Bowyer was in the top 5 in the Daytona 500 but at lap 129 he ran out of fuel and could only recover to 11th and at Phoenix he blow a tire early and finish 6 laps down in 30th. At Las Vegas however after running just inside the top 15 all race the 15 team decided to stay out on a late race caution on to be on the front row for the final restart. He would fall back to 6th place but when you consider how he ran it's a very good result. The half mile at Bristol would give Clint his first top 5 of the season with a 4th place. In California he'd finish in 13th putting him 8th in points. And in Martinsville he is looking to have a great day running in the top 5 all day behind the Hendrick quartet Gordon, Johnson, Dale Jr, and Khane. And when Khane retired for an engine faliure and then a caution came out for David Reutimann stalled on the frontstretch gave a chance for strategy to give Bowyer a chance to pit for fresh tires and be in the catbird seat from 3rd on the restart.

Instead of at least a 3rd or 4th Bowyer finished 10th. So in 6 races Bowyer got 3 top 10s which are a 6th, a top 5 running 4th, and 10th. But he's also finished 11th, 30th, and 13th in the other 3 races. And into the spring and beginning of summer Bowyer would continue to be in a pattern of either being hot or cold. He would be cold with a 17th in Texas and a 36th at his hometown track, Kansas. He would get hot with a 7th in Richmond and 6th in Talladega but would simmer down with an 11th and 13th at Darlington and Charlotte. However, in Dover he would warm back up with a 5th place. The 15 team finished 6th in Pocono after getting a speeding penalty early in the race and 7th in Michigan. Heading to Sonoma he was 9th in the standings 25 points ahead of the closest non chase eligible driver Carl Edwards. With the chase approaching it was clear the Michael Waltrip Racing team needed to win to feel safe. And the entire organization has shown it could be possible with the success they had with all the of the MWR Toyotas in 2012. The 55 was shared by 3 drivers who are Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip, and Brian Vickers. At Bristol with Vickers behind the wheel he finished 5th after leading 125 laps. Martin Truex Jr in the 56 is 7 in the points with 4 top 5s 8 top 10s. His most dominating race is Kansas when he finished 2nd after leading 173 of the 267 laps. And Bowyer while having 2 top 5s and 8 top 10s has not had a dominant race yet where he had the fastest car. But one thing the team needs to do is execute with great pitstops, strategy, and keeping up with the track. Not keeping up with the track even for a brief second was the cause of undoing potential victories during the year. But Bowyer has not had that and after leaving Richard Childress Racing at the end of 2011 he could really use some momentum. And he would not waste anytime by working his way to the lead at lap and hardly give it up. The only time he would give up the lead was during pitstops to his teammate Martin Truex Jr. The first caution would come out at lap 80 for Tommy Drissi. With fuel not a worry he just needed to maintain to keep the lead. And he seemed to be doing just that but however he would be hounded by the 2004 Cup champion, Kurt Busch. And he would fight the 15 the entire way and after the controversy Kurt has been through with his anger problems, plus the way he acted and treated people including meltdowns over team radios and incidents disrespecting the media he isn't giving up easily. Especially since his meltdown with the press after an Xfinity race at Dover suspended him for Pocono he is gonna be very aggressive. Lap after lap in turn 11 Kurt is all over Bowyer's back bumper but Clint was being coached by his team to just run his line and drive off. The pressure inside these cars are intense with 5 to go and Bowyer is pulling away from Busch who reports a problem with his car. A suspension problem for the 51 has given the 15 breathing room to just hit his Mark's and run out the laps. But a caution comes out again after Kyle Busch and Paul Menard spun in turn 7 creating a green white checkered finish. So now he has to execute the perfect restart now to secure a win in the Toyota Save Mart 350 that he has dominated. But for the crew, team, driver, and fans of the 15....... it paid off! After leading 71 of 112 laps Clint Bowyer wins the race! And the pace of the MWR cars finally payed off with the speed they all showed in that race with the second most laps being lead by Truex Jr who unfortunately was spun late and Vickers finishing 4th. The morale of the whole organization was risen up with this performance that has placed Clint Bowyer in the best spot he has been all year so far in the points, 7th. And now he is 50 points above the 11th place driver Carl Edwards meaning now if Bowyer falls out of the top 10 he us in a good position to fight for a wild card. But they would prefer to use the 3 bonus points they'd get for the win in the top 10 so that is now their mission. Their mission however looked like it had taken a blow over the next 2 weeks after finishing 16th in Kentucky after being in the top 10 for over half the race after Joey Logono was tapped by Ryan Newman into Bowyer. A wreck didn't happen but Clint's night was ruined. Then Daytona happened after getting caught up in a late race wreck known as "the big one" with 7 laps to go. This put him back in 10th 31 points above the cutline for the top 10. So with officially half the season over, the chase 9 races away Bowyer and company would need to build momentum for the chase and to stay the top 10 also if possible. New Hampshire would put the energy back into the top 10 quest with a 3rd place run. Heading to the Brickyard in Indianapolis Bowyer is 9th in points 47 points above 11th. So at this point the 5 hour energy team needs to just be consistent and use the last of the summer to tune up for the chase. Nothing is guaranteed in NASCAR though, and it showed with Bowyer wrecking at lap 48. But the 15 finished 15th in the end of the race and even gained points on 11th place driver Kyle Busch. 55 separates them now. And with the next few tracks coming up the confidence was still up to stay in the top 10. And rightly so with Clint getting finishing 8th in a rain shortened Pocono, 4th at the Glen 7th in Michigan 7th at Bristol and despite a disappointing 30th place after a battery change under green cost him 3 laps after running in the top 10 after starting last. Now is purely about where will Clint be seeded to start the chase off at the regular season finale, Richmond. And he started pretty well from 4th and ran in the top 3 most of the night. But JUST after green flag pitstops his night looked to take a turn for the worse when his left rear tire was cut after contact from Juan Pablo Montoya. And it seemed very frustrating when you have a great car and get spun around which he expressed over the radio. But little did the whole team know it was a blessing in disguise. He rebound to get outside the top 10 and a gamble to pit under a caution for rain paid off when the race got back green. Be restarted 10th and he charged his way through the field. With 88 laps to go he got past a guy fighting for a wild card spot in the chase, Ryan Newman. It seemed like things would be straight forward with everyone needing to stop 1 more time. Then crew chief Brian Pattie tells his driver to save fuel to make it to the end. So he would have to back it down in an attempt to make it to the end. In an attempt to get 3 extra bonus points would actually work. Clint Bowyer wins the Federated Auto Parts 400 to get his 7th carrer victory which jumped him up to 5th in the points 6 behind Denny Hamlin! With his 2nd win of the season which is a fate he had previously gotten in 2010 it gave the MWR team momentum into the chase. They were confident in the face that they thought they can do really well in the chase, and maybe even win it all at Homestead. It started off with an ok note if you will, he was struggling with the handling on his car and ran in the teens for a lot of the race but finished 10th. This left the 15 team 15 points behind new leader Brad Keselowski. At New Hampshire he would run much better with a 4th place run. However, he was still 15 points behind new leader Jimmie Johnson. At Dover he'd run in the top 5 for most of the day but however would finish 9th due to pitting with 25 to go because he could not make the final 90 laps without stopping. This dropped him back to 4th in points 25 behind Keselowski. But that meant nothing going to Talladega, a track that Clint was actually looking forward to. But when you win the last 2 years in a row here you have a reason to be confident. Early on he ran up front but after being cycled back during pitstops he just stayed there from lap 60 to lap 170. But then he charged his way up to the lead with 6 to go. But a lap later a caution came out for Jamie McMurray wrecking in the tri-oval to set up a green white checkered finish. A chance for him to win is there and with the 3 drivers ahead of him in the points Keselowski, Johnson, and Hamlin stuck in traffic at 14th, 15th, and 25th Bowyer needs to execute these final couple of laps to get back in the mix of this championship battle.

It would take NASCAR a while to get the championship standings correct but it slightly worked in Bowyer's favor. Instead of being 6th 43 behind he is 5th 40 behind 1st place in the championship picture. But still he was almost a race worth of points behind meaning he would have to deliver 5 perfect race weekends to be able to keep his championship hopes alive. The second half of the chase begins at Charlotte where we would see the true challengers for the for the title were. And it looked out of Bowyer's hands. While Bowyer had a top 10 car his rivals had winning cars so it appeared his quest for his maiden championship are gone. But however strategy put them back in the mix for the race. In the 107 lap dash to the flag fuel became a problem for the drivers. With Hamlin and Johnson pitting under caution they looked like they were in position to make it to the end when the 15 stayed out. And with the final 4 tire stop with 56 to go, Bowyer managed to stretch it but that was with the aid of caution laps. Now he has to make 56 laps all on green while being able to keep Denny Hamlin behind. But nothing to worry about for Brian Pattie and Clint Bowyer who wins the Bank of America 500! His 3rd win of the season closes the championship gap to 28 points after Brad Keselowski ran out of gas and couldn't make to the end without pitting anyway! So now this makes it his best year ever as a driver in the making of only his 8th career victory. He actually ran out of gas in his burnout and said in his interview "I wanted to do a burnout! Am I ever going to get to do a burnout?" And another funny thing is that in all 3 wins this year Clint Bowyer has had to walk into victory lane so hah! Who knows? Maybe if he wins the championship he'll burn it down in front of the championship stage. But there is still a long way to go in the chase. Including his home track, Kansas the newly repaved racetrack. And this track proved to be a challenge for the drivers. It turned out to be a war of attrition with half the field either spinning or not finishing due to wrecks. And another wrench to throw is that a lot of drivers went up and down with track position being king. Bowyer was one of few drivers that actually maintained position all day and got a respectable 6th place putting him 25 points behind the lead. 4 races to go and being 5 points behind Denny Hamlin who was in the championship conversation meant the 15 team still had a slight chance to pull through. Brian Pattie said that in Martinsville and Phoenix are the tracks they GOT to win at in order to have a true shot at the championship. The other two tracks in the remaining four races are Texas which isn't one of Clint's strongest tracks with Johnson especially doing well in the spring and Homestead which could be a straight fight when the drivers ahead of him with Keselowski and Johnson never winning there before and Hamlin only having one victory at the season finale. At Martinsville Clint would start in 8th position but would run from 3rd-6th for the early stages of the race. But his car had speed and the whole 15 team knew that and they considered this track and Phoenix as tracks that they really need to win in order to gain points on their rivals. Well with the speed comes the lead as Bowyer gets past Jimmie Johnson at lap 183 of 500 to gain a bonus point for leading a lap. But unfortunately he'd lose the lead and fall back to 4th on pit road. However he'd restart 3rd after Denny Hamlin was speeding on pit road so Clint restarted 3rd. Later on though he would regain the lead and would hardly give as the race got passed the 300 lap mark. In fact a rare occurrence happened at Martinsville, green flag pitstops. Bowyer would stall his car in the pits briefly losing the lead but as he showed before that he was the car to beat surpassing Jimmie Johnson on the most laps lead list. But it's not clinched yet and when Hamlin brought out the caution with 108 laps remaining tightened the field back together. After yellow flag stops the 48 beat the 15 off of pit road, the last car that Bowyer wanted to see ahead of him. Knowing the bonus point for leading the most laps is at stake Bowyer was all over the back bumper of the 5 time champion but could do nothing about it and even fell back to 3rd as the race was drawing to an end. When his former teammate Kevin Harvick blew an engine Bowyer would restart 6th after pitting and in the end would after some hard normal Martinsville racing against the 24 of Jeff Gordon the 15 of Bowyer would finish 5th after leading 154 of the 500 laps ran. No drama between them it's just great and aggressive racing between them but a slightly disappointing end to a great race for Clint. And to add salt to the wounds Jimmie Johnson would actually lead the most laps, 193. Anyway it's still a pretty good day for the 5 hour energy team jumping to 3rd in the points yet actually net lost a point now 26 behind Johnson. Texas wouldn't do any favors for Bowyer's championship hopes after a 6th place run. Not too bad right? It honestly wasn't but when the two drivers ahead in points Johnson and Keselowski dominate the race and finish 1-2 it'll hurt. With 2 races to go Bowyer needed nothing less but a miracle being 36 points behind. It didn't look like that was happening with Keselowski leading and Johnson 7th while Bowyer was 4th. With 78 laps to go the miracle DID show up from Jimmie Johnson blowing a right front tire, hitting the wall and having to head to the garage! Now comes a chance as the race nears it's end for Bowyer to strike, despite being under the radar and being overlooked by a lot of people as a championship threat the entire 15 team refused to give up and here is why! What lies ahead now is a chance to go to Homestead championship eligible, are the chances slim? Yes. Impossible? Absolutely not! At one point he was as low as 25 points behind and the chance became clear while still under the radar that Clint Bowyer and company could go into the season finale as a dark horse with everything to gain and nothing to lose. However after slight contact with a competitor out on track unleashed the anger of their whole season's worth of frustrations even though he said there were no hard feelings there obviously were.

That was how the crew chiefs felt, the 15 crew chief Brian Pattie was fined 25,000 dollars for his crew going up to Jeff and starting the fight and placed on probation while the 24 crew chief Alan Gustafson was just put on provisional with no fine. Regardless the damage was done and Clint Bowyer's title hopes are over. Jeff Gordon was penalized 25 driver points and fined 100,000 dollars for his actions. Clint Bowyer would hold his own at Homestead and manage to finish 2nd in the race to Jeff Gordon ironically and 2nd in the championship 39 behind Keselowski. The next year in 2013 Clint Bowyer made the chase again trying to redeem their defeat. But 2013 for MWR would be remembered forever for all the wrong reasons with one of the most controversial incidents in NASCAR history taking place during the regular season finale race at Richmond.

The incident being known as "spingate" would cost Martin Truex Jr his spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and gave it to Ryan Newman. Not only that but a 13th car was added to the chase, Jeff Gordon. NASCAR did that due to the fact that in all of the chaos the MWR cars created cost Jeff a spot in the chase so they allowed him to join. But it would get even worse for Michael Waltrip Racing, Clint would only finish 7th in the final points standings and Truex finished 16th. Not only that but because NAPA Auto Parts didn't want to be with the team after spingate left the organization meaning Martin Truex Jr would have to part ways with the team after 2013. Michael Waltrip Racing would never be the same again after this. Bowyer and Vickers missed the chase all together in 2014 and in 2015 was actually the last year MWR would be a racing team and Bowyer finished 16th while the 55 was ran by multiple drivers including Brett Moffit, David Ragan. So in 2016 everyone is looking for jobs and this is what the main players got. Brian Pattie was the crew chief of the 16 for Greg Biffle in 2016 and the 17 Roush Fenway Racing for Ricky Stenhouse Jr from 2017-2019 and will join the 2 time Xfinity champion to JTG Daugherty Racing, Chad Johnson Crew chief of the 56 of Martin Truex Jr now works on top of the box for the 42 Chip Ganassi team driven by Matt Kenseth, Rodney Childers the guy who crew chiefed the 55 car now is the crew chief for Kevin Harvick's number 4 Stewart Haas Racing team that went on to win the championship in 2014. The drivers however went like this, Brett Moffit currently races in the truck series and won the title in 2018, Brian Vickers would only substitute for an injured Tony Stewart for 5 of the first 7 races in 2016. Vickers the former Xfinity champion would never race again after this. David Ragan would race for 2016 and Front Row Motorsports for the rest of his career. While Truex went on join Furniture Row Racing in 2014 he went on to be a Cup champion in 2017 making his mark as one of the most elite drivers on the current Cup grid. Truex however joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019 after Furniture Row Racing closed it's doors forever. Meanwhile for Kansas Clint Bowyer he would have the worst full time season of his career in 2016 after racing for Harry Scott Jr to an abysmal 27th place points finish. There is light at the end of the tunnel though for Bowyer after he joined Stewart Haas Racing replacing retired 3 time Cup champion Tony Stewart. Despite this heading into the 2020 season Bowyer has been unable to have another season in 2012 when he set career highs in wins with 3, top 5s with 10, top 10s with 23, and average finish with 10.9. As Iceberg said in his missing rings video "It makes many wonder, What if Gordon hadn't crashed Bowyer at Phoenix? What if his two finishes outside of the top 10 in the 2012 chase were avoided? Or what if in 2012 Clint Bowyer captured his missing ring?" Definitely could make you wonder for the former Xfinity series champion and for Michael Waltrip Racing as a whole, what might have been?