Bowen tells an interviewer about his win. (Jeff Burk photo)

"What a win and what a way to finish the weekend. To race Jason, I mean look at his track record. He is the most dominant car out there right now and to win against him means a lot," Bowen said. "Even with his impressive resume, I tried not to think about it. I went out there, tried not to focus on my opponent and pictured my win light coming on. I try not to get worked up during a run, I just focus on what I need to do. When it left, it was going toward the center and I had to pedal. I reeled it back in, but I could hear him the whole way. When I saw my win light I thought, wow, how great is this."

Bowen's victory was far from an upset as the Grand Blanc, Mich., driver placed the "Violator" Pontiac squarely at the top of the charts after two rounds of qualifying on Friday. On Saturday, however, Rupert fired back during the second round of eliminations with a head-turning motor-killing 5.700-second pass. With both cars showing their hand early, it was truly anyone's game when the green light lit for the final time.

"In the semifinals Rupert ran that 5.70 and I thought, wow, this is going to be tough. To make matters worse, we slowed down from our first round and didn't really know why. So we hopped it up for the final and went to work," Bowen said.

Bowen collected wins over Mike McIntire Jr. and Paul Romine on his way to the final, winning both with relative ease with passes of 5.780 and 5.852.

(Chris Schneider photo)

"I have been preparing myself for this race for the past few weeks. I came here just wanting to qualify and go a couple of rounds, those were my expectations," Bowen said. "We qualified No. 1 and I really didn't expect that. Then we ran really good during first round and I thought, hey, we might have a chance.

"We don't race a lot, so this was a great opportunity to come here with all of these guys and see where we stand. It is awesome to actually come away with the win."