By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

With just three races left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Clint Bowyer definitely leads the pack as far as being laid back. Currently Bowyer sits third in the overall point standings just 26 points behind the man atop the heap — Jimmie Johnson. However Friday morning Bowyer played coy about his chances at the title.

“Well, Jimmie (Johnson) wasn’t in New York when (Hurricane) Sandy hit — he was in North Carolina it looks like so he
made it. So, scratch that from the list of ideas possibly that I could win this championship. I think hit man is probably out of the order. He rides his bicycle a lot — I was hoping maybe he would blow his knee out or something. Nothing career-ending or anything. Maybe painful — something painful to keep him out of the car,” Bowyer stated sarcastically.

“You have to beat him. That’s what makes this sport what it is. It’s incredible the job they do each and every year and it’s a challenge for everybody to try and outrun him.They are so solid. We saw in Kansas — about the time you think, ‘Oh boy, they’ve done stubbed their toe now,’ they had a hell of a Band-Aid and got it fixed right back up. I think he finished right behind me and its like, ‘How did they possibly do that?’ That’s what it takes to win a championship and if we do that, it’s going to be pretty cool.”

Despite what he says, you can’t deny that Bowyer is much more of a championship threat than he led on in his weekly media availability. If you toss out the Talladega race — where every Chase driver was swept up in a last lap crash — Bowyer’s average finish in this Chase is an impressive 5.8. But you wouldn’t know that by how unwilling Bowyer was to talk about his Chase chances. Somehow he managed to swap the topic of conversation to a recent deer hunting trip in Kansas.

“I went back hunting yesterday and saw a huge deer — I mean a huge deer. Focus is a little bit of an issue for me anyway. I really woke up this morning thinking about that deer for some reason and I know I need to try to win this championship, but that deer yesterday was huge — it was huge — to the point that we’re trying to lease some more ground, let’s put in that way. It’s on the wrong side of the fence. Need it on the other side of the fence,” Bowyer joked.

His press conference was stuffed full of these little quips, but towards the end of his stay in the media center he finally pulled back the curtain a little bit on what has surprised him so much about 2012.

“Success. I’m not going to lie — he (Michael Waltrip, team owner) was probably right. There was so much potential there. You saw the potential and saw what could be. If everything played out and the plan played out and the talk — if they could back up the talk, it was going to be what we’re seeing this year. That’s just been the case. It’s been above and beyond,” Bowyer said in a rare serious moment, “Everybody — the teamwork is the biggest word of our year. It’s just incredible how everybody works together. Everybody is on the same page and everybody pulls for one another and we get good results because of the teamwork that we have within MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) all across the board. Our partnership with TRD (Toyota Racing Development) continues to get better and better. Just everybody within the team of MWR has really elevated their game in a huge way.”

Don’t let the joking side of Clint Bowyer make you think that he is throwing up the white flag. Bowyer is very much in this Chase for the Sprint Cup, and he is going to give it all he’s got the rest of the way. Just weeks ago he won at Charlotte Motor Speedway – a 1.5-mile speedway that Texas Motor Speedway mirrors. Don’t mistake confidence for carelessness.

– Toby Christie is the lead Motorsports writer for Sicknissified.com, and he can be reached via twitter or email. Tweet him @Tobalical or email him at tobalical@sicknissified.com. You can also find his work at TheFinalLap.com this weekend.