Starting Sunday's Shelby 427 Sprint Cup race in 37th, Clint Bowyer was able to make his way up the field to ultimately cross the finish line in the second position.

Bowyer's second top-5 finish of the season propelled him to second place in the point standings, just 18 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

Battling an ill-handling Impala SS early in the race, Bowyer ventured down pit road during the first round of green flag stops began on lap 51. The Helping Hands pit crew quickly changed the tires, added fuel, made a wedge adjustment and sent Bowyer back on the track. Bowyer was scored one lap down in the 33rd position after leaving pit road.

When the No. 6 Ford of David Ragan's engine gave out forcing a caution, Bowyer earned the free pass to the lead lap and put himself back in contention when the race restarted on lap 82.

On lap 258 the caution flag was waved once again, and Bowyer's crew chief Shane Wilson tossed the dice and elected to stay out on the track while the race leaders went down pit road to get fuel. The gamble paid off as Bowyer gained possesion of the lead.

Race winner Kyle Busch passed Bowyer on the 269th lap of the race. Bowyer was able to hold off teammate Jeff Burton to collect the runner-up finish in Sunday's event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"It was a wild day," Bowyer explained. "We went a lap down and we got that back. I think (Juan Pablo) Montoya ran into me, knocked the right rear in, but we got that fixed and got back up there. Shane Wilson made a great call to stay out at the end. He studies his pit strategy for these races really hard and it paid off for us. It’s a good way to bounce back from our tough finish at California last week. I'm really proud of all the guys on the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet.”