Stenhouse races in memory of Clauson
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wanted everybody together.
One of his closest friends, Bryan Clauson, had died from injuries suffered in a midget car crash during a race a few days earlier. Now, members of the racing community were gathering in Knoxville, Iowa, for the Knoxville Nationals to honor Clauson, regarded as the nation’s top shorttrack dirt-car driver for much of the decade.
Stenhouse had to persuade Clauson’s parents, Tim and Diana, to come. Clauson’s fiancée, Lauren Stewart, and his sister, Taylor, were there. So was Stenhouse’s girlfriend and fellow NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson and his girlfriend, Katelyn Sweet.
“I think it’s important that we’re all together,” Tim Clauson recalls Stenhouse saying. “If you and I can make it, I think that just completes it. Danica’s coming. We’re all gonna come. We all, as his friends, we all want you to be there.”
Clauson still wasn’t convinced, but the next morning Diana Clauson said she wanted to see all of this. So they went.
The group sat up talking. The Clausons were the first to go to bed, so the rest of the group moved to Larson’s motor home.
Stewart told Stenhouse about the whole weekend, from Clauson’s accident in Kansas, to him being airlifted to Nebraska, to the moment they found out he was an organ donor. Then they looked around. It was 5:30 in the morning.
“In that moment,” Stewart said, “I knew Bryan and Ricky’s friendship was something really, really special.”
In the year since Clauson’s death last August, Stenhouse drove the pace lap in Clauson’s car at those Knoxville Nationals, he and Larson wore tribute helmets during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and Stenhouse thanked Clauson after his first NASCAR Cup win, at Talladega Superspeedway this May.
This weekend, Stenhouse will be in Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400. He can go to the Clauson-Marshall Racing shop in Fishers and see Tim. He can get dinner with Stewart and the whole family.
Stenhouse was one of the first people Stewart spoke to in the chaos after the accident. Tim Clauson teared up in his office this week talking about how worried Stenhouse was about the family instead of himself.
When he saw Stewart for the first time after the crash, Stenhouse gave her the biggest hug and made a promise. He said Clauson was one of his closest friends, and he and Patrick were going to make sure Stewart was taken care of. “We want you to know that we are here for you, and we are now your best friends,” he said.
“He’s definitely stayed true to his word,” Stewart said. “He’s a pretty special guy for doing that.”
RELAXED TOGETHER Stenhouse and Clauson came up through the United States Auto Club (USAC) ranks together. They knew each other from the sprint and dirt racing circuits, but they weren’t exactly friends.
When Clauson went to Charlotte to chase the NASCAR path and Stenhouse soon followed, that’s when they connected. They became roommates and hit it off.
Neither drank or loved to party. They often were designated drivers. They didn’t talk racing much, mostly college basketball.
They were just relaxed around each other. They would later tell Stewart their best days were spent at fellow driver Landon Cassill’s grandmother’s house playing cards with her.
Clauson came back to Indiana when NASCAR didn’t pan out. He went on to win four USAC national championships (two in sprint cars, two in midgets) while also competing in three Indianapolis 500s. Stenhouse rose up the NASCAR ranks. Their friend- ship remained strong.
Stewart and Tim Clauson talked about how neither Stenhouse nor Clauson was jealous of the other. If anything, Stenhouse wished he could get back to his roots more often like Clauson.
“Ricky honestly thought what Bryan was doing for (a) living was the coolest job out there,” Stewart said.
They had been planning a “race-cation” for years. Stenhouse wanted to get back out and race dirt cars. They could “rough it,” as they called it. They finally did it in June 2016.
Clauson already was racing, and the team graciously offered a car to Stenhouse. They started in Texas and raced through Oklahoma and ended in Stenhouse’s home track in Memphis. Clauson also was running a midget race there, so they called Tim Clauson asking if he could throw a car together for Stenhouse to run in it.
It fell on Father’s Day weekend, and Tim Clauson and Rick Stenhouse Sr. joined them in Memphis. All four of them, fathers and sons, best friends, spent the whole weekend working on Clauson’s car.
He won the race. It was a perfect trip. Stenhouse got to relive his old racing days, and the four were able to do what they love.
“There isn’t a conversation that Ricky and I have that doesn’t include a reference from that day,” Tim Clauson said.
BEING THERE FOR CLAUSONS Stenhouse and Tim Clauson sat together in the Knoxville suite all Wednesday night and much of Thursday before Stenhouse paced the field last August.
They talked about a little of everything. Stenhouse said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to run with the World of Outlaws team. The point was to do it with Bryan, not for him.
Then Stenhouse leaned over and laid his head on Clauson’s shoulder. “Mr. Tim, what are you going to do?” he asked.
Clauson was still debating how involved he would remain in racing. He was still figuring so much out. “Buddy, I don’t know,” Clauson said. “But I will promise you this: I will always have one car, and that will be for you and I.”
Stenhouse kind of smiled and said, “I was hoping you weren’t going to leave us.”
The two talk on the phone at least weekly. The families have met up 10 or 12 times since Clauson’s death. It isn’t just Stenhouse who’s been there for the Clausons. The whole racing community has been there, and that’s a big part of why Tim Clauson sticks with it.
But with Stenhouse and the Clausons, they seem to be helping each other through this year. When Stenhouse won his first Cup race at Talladega, he said he couldn’t wait to call Tim and Lauren.
“Ricky really looks up to Tim,” Stewart said. “I think he really respects Tim for, not only what he’s done in racing, but he really respects him for how he’s handled everything with Bryan’s accident.”
When Stenhouse paced the field with Clauson’s car in Knoxville, they told him to pull it back into the infield. He pulled in and then hung a right into victory lane. Clauson’s old line when he won was that he “Parked it” in victory lane. Those words are posted on the walls in the Clauson-Marshall Racing shop.
The guys on the radio asked what Stenhouse was doing. He told Stewart he took off his helmet, turned the radio off and sat there for a second.
“I was parking Bryan’s car where it belongs,” he told her.