Bowyer faces elimination at ‘home’
Kansas native locked in with SHR, but not playoffs
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Clint Bowyer rolled into Kansas Speedway Friday with the comfort of knowing he’ll be with Stewart-Haas Racing next season and the uncertainty of whether he’ll be in the playoffs next week.
The Kansan reached a contract extension with SHR to remain in the No. 14 Ford regardless of what happens Sunday, when Bowyer faces postseason elimination. He sits 11th in the 12-driver field with the bottom four drivers eliminated after the race at Kansas Speedway.
“Unfortunately the nature of the business, all that stuff falls on top of managing [the playoffs], but you just have to have good people around you,” said Bowyer, who has been with SHR for three of his 15 seasons in NASCAR’s top series. “My brother and everybody did a good job of getting that handled, doing it in a manner that I don’t have to worry about it.”
Bowyer was hired to replace team coowner Tony Stewart after his retirement after the 2016 season. That deal was done more than a year ahead of time, a rarity then and something that has become nearly nonexistent in an era in which contracts are often signed at the last minute.
“Listen, it’s always a good thing,” Bowyer said. “I don’t feel like I was racing for my career anyway. I race because I love to do it. I love to come back here and everything else. There’s a lot of pride to be part of a sport like this, something you’ve been doing it since you were a little boy.
“Doing it another year? Yes, that’s great and according to plan,” Bowyer said. “But right now the plan is all about trying to stay alive in these playoffs and winning a championship.”
Kyle Larson won at Dover and Ryan Blaney won last week’s rain-delayed race at Talladega, locking them into the eightdriver semifinal round that begins next week at Martinsville. But the pressure is on the remaining 10 drivers to lock up their spot at an unpredictable mile-and-a-half track.
Joey Logano is the last driver above the points cutoff line, while Alex Bowman is 18 points adrift to lead three Hendrick Motorsports cars in danger of elimination. The fourth car that could be cut on points? Bowyer, who is 24 points behind heading into Sunday.
And despite Kansas being his home track, it hasn’t always been kind to him.
The native of Emporia, who cut his teeth on the dirt track at nearby Lakeside Speedway, started second and finished fifth in the spring race for his best showing in six years. He has two other top-five finishes, but many more times he has finished somewhere in the middle of the pack.
If he wasn’t caught up in an accident or dropped out with engine trouble.
“The weird thing is I can come here and be just spot-on and have a really easy weekend and be successful,” he said, “and other weekends I feel like a fish out of water the whole weekend.”
Bowyer, who has twice qualified for the playoffs with SHR, made his 500th career start last weekend. And while Stewart called him “exactly who I wanted to drive my No. 14 car,” the reality is the one-year extension only puts Bowyer’s future at bay for the next 12 months.
That’s fine with him, too.
Bowyer, 40, said the business has changed considerably just in the four years since his previous deal. Finding sponsors is more difficult, NASCAR just finalized its purchase of International Speedway Corp. earlier Friday in a move that could have lasting effects on the sport, and an entirely new car — known as the Next Gen car — is set to debut at the 2021 Daytona 500.
Hauler troubles
One hauler caught fire while traveling to Kansas Speedway, another went off the road when its driver had a medical emergency and wound up totaled at the bottom of a 60-foot embankment.
So much for wrecks only happening on the track.
The No. 47 team from JTG Daugherty Racing was busy Friday morning putting an engine into a backup car for Ryan Preece after its team transporter caught fire the previous day. The drivers in the hauler were not injured, though the team was unsure what could be salvaged of the cars.
Hendrick Motorsports loaned one of its test haulers to the NASCAR Cup Series team, and it was parked near the back side of the garage area to prepare for the race Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
Less than 12 hours before the JTG fire, a transporter bringing Kaulig Racing’s cars to Kansas for the Xfinity race Saturday went off a road in North Carolina. The hauler crashed through the guardrail, down an embankment and the trailer overturned before coming to a stop in a wooded area.
The North Carolina highway patrol said the crash, which occurred near Asheville, happened when driver Barry Sheppard had “some kind of medical issue.” Co-driver Barry Collins attempted to right the truck before it ran off the side of the road and down the embankment.
Both drivers were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.