Bowyer's car was too low in inspection

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The No. 15 Toyota driven by Clint Bowyer failed post-qualifying inspection at Daytona International Speedway for next Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona 500.

"The 15 car did not get through post-qualifying inspection," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said Sunday after the session. "His time has been disallowed."

According to a Michael Waltrip Racing spokesperson, the Camry was 60/1000ths too low on the left front.

Originally, Bowyer qualified 22nd with a lap of 192.843 mph. But he will now start at the back of the second Gatorade Duel 150-qualifying race on Thursday. Bowyer will still be locked into the field for the Daytona 500 as his team is in the top 35 in owners points from 2011.

MWR vice president of competition Scott Miller said the infraction was not intentional.

"Really very surprised that we were -- I don't know if we got something stuck in the bleed hole in the shock, but the front just didn't come back up," Miller said. "It's all the same stuff that we ran in practice, and it was coming back up. We'll go over there and get to the bottom of it and see what happened."

Although Bowyer is new to the organization, Miller didn't expect the infraction to affect the momentum of the team.

"Not as far as the weekend goes," Miller said. "It's never good to be in this position right here, but as far as the 150 goes -- you're going to be to the front and to the back of that thing. Our competitiveness and our ability to go win the 150 hasn't changed any."