By The Kansas City Star

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s been a pretty miserable year for NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer is still looking for his first victory, and he’s likely going to miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

But Bowyer has one memory from 2009 that will last a lifetime. It was meeting President Barack Obama last week when Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other competitors from the 2008 Chase visited the White House.

Bowyer’s first trip to the Rose Garden marked just how far he has come from his days as a short-track racer growing up in Emporia.

“It was cool,” Bowyer said Tuesday while in Kansas City. “To be standing there in the White House talking to the President … what an honor to be able to go up to the big house and see the man.

“You go from working in a body shop in Emporia and running modifieds at Lakeside Speedway to the White House is pretty wild.”

Bowyer, 30, was impressed with what a quick study Obama was and liked what he had to say about the state of the troubled auto industry.

“I don’t think he’s a huge NASCAR fan, but he did a good job relating to our sport and recognizing the right people,” Bowyer said. “He definitely knew who The King (Richard Petty) was.

“We’ve seen tough times in the auto industry, and it’s reflected on all of us. He’s very much in tune and involved with that. That’s what drives our sport. … I think (Rick) Hendrick wanted to know where his Cash for Clunkers was.”

Hendrick Motorsports, owner of three cars in the top 10 – Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin – has fielded anything but clunkers in the Sprint Cup Series. His cars have won eight races this season, while Bowyer and Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Casey Mears have been shut out.

With two races to go before the 12-driver Chase is set, Bowyer is the highest-ranked Childress driver at 15th, 112 points behind Matt Kenseth for the final spot. While it’s mathematically possible for Bowyer to qualify for his third straight Chase, it’s unlikely.

“Of course we have a chance,” said Bowyer, whose opportunity was probably closed at the end of last week’s race at Bristol when he was wrecked and fell to 21st after qualifying sixth. “I knew going in, this team was going to take time to jell. We found ourselves a little farther behind than we initially thought.”

There’s little doubt the switch from the 07 Jack Daniels team to the 33 Cheerios Chevrolet, complete with new engineers, crew chief and pit crew, had an effect on Bowyer’s season. The toughest part in adjusting to a new team, Bowyer said, was “not having a notebook” for reference at each track.

“With (former crew chief) Gil Martin, when I say, ‘Loose,’ he knows how loose. You have that relationship. It takes time to build that. Communication in what we do in this sport is huge, and without that, you’re going to be behind the teams that have it. We have a good team. We have a good over-the-wall pit crew now. I feel like our team has as good of people underneath me as we’ve ever had.”

That’s why Bowyer hasn’t totally given up on making the Chase when Sprint Cup racing resumes after an off week. The last two races are at Atlanta, where Bowyer has had some success, and at Richmond, where his last Cup victory came in 2008. So the strategy is obvious.

“The strategy is always to win,” Bowyer said. “But you’ve got to keep everything in check. You can’t do stupid calls or make dumb decisions. … If we win them both, we can probably land in the Chase.”

If Bowyer fails to make the Chase, he’ll still look forward to running in both the Nationwide and Cup races on Oct. 3-4 at Kansas Speedway, site of the third stage of the Chase.

“Obviously, you want to be in the Chase and hunting the championship when you roll in here,” Bowyer said, “but it’s a fun weekend, it’s fun to go to Lakeside and run the dirt car there, and the crowd is good here.

“The town is fun. All the guys, the race teams … we do this so much, and it’s so routine, a lot of the tracks are exactly the same. This track being close to the city, and what they’ve done next to the racetrack at the Legends, and the Power and Light District downtown, it’s a fun city to come to.

“Really for us, Vegas, here and Chicago are the fun ones.”

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