Clint Bowyer: One of NASCAR’s Most Captivating Personalities Talks Legacy And Leaving His Mark

Clint Bowyer, one of NASCAR’s most captivating personalities, discusses the current state of NASCAR and where he thinks the sport is headed in the future.

This “little lady” from Los Angeles, whom many would consider an unlikely NASCAR fan, has said for years that NASCAR needs more drivers with big personalities like Clint Bowyer. Given NASCAR‘s current state, it’s hard to disagree that the sport is in dire need of storylines, heroes, villains, perhaps an entertainer, and of course, more notable personalities. But don’t believe me; take the word of NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who recently echoed my sentiments with a tweet. Maybe now someone will believe me.

NASCAR Needs A Familiar Face

The connection fans have with a driver like Dale Earnhardt Jr., or had for the fiery personality of someone like Tony Stewart, and even rooting for an all-around good guy like Carl Edwards just because is a thing of the past. The need for an established driver who can offer balance as we experience the changing of the guard with NASCAR’s young guns is more apparent now than ever before. One question remains. Which driver has that notable persona, the temperament, and the personality to appeal to old-school fans who still relish the glory days where the personalities of drivers like Darrell Waltrip, Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons, Kenny Wallace, or the late great Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt? Surprisingly, I say Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford Performance driver, Clint Bowyer.

Clint Bowyer Can Be The Savior NASCAR Needs

Clint Bowyer is a shining star under a dimming light. He is funny, engaging, charismatic, and let’s not forget, he can still race with the best of them. Bowyer has proved that every week with multiple top ten finishes.The guy has personality. He is entertaining. He is talented. The question remains, can he win? More importantly, can his personality help NASCAR? I say yes and yes.

NASCAR is Transitioning

The current state of NASCAR is a far cry from the days when the stands were full and ratings were high. There is constant change that often times doesn’t make sense and everything with NASCAR has become “politically correct.” With anything in life, people are resistant to change and it’s no secret that NASCAR fans are disgruntled. NASCAR’s constant changes to improve the sport have managed to accomplish one simple task, which is to upset fans. Bowyer offers NASCAR fans a piece of the old NASCAR they fell in love with.

Talent and Personality are Mandatory

It was a no brainer when it was announced that Clint Bowyer would sit behind the wheel of the Ford Performance No. 14 car. Why? Because only Bowyer had a big enough personality to sit behind the wheel of the car once driven by former driver, Tony Stewart.

From the moment I attended my first NASCAR race, it was apparent to me Tony Stewart was the love of my NASCAR life. Tony had the kind of personality that provoked emotion — good or bad. He had the “it” factor that many of the young NASCAR drivers lack today. Bowyer embodies and exudes many of Tony’s traits. He is unapologetically funny, has an undeniable presence, and is what NASCAR fans long for, a true racer at heart.

Why Clint Bowyer?

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Clint Bowyer has competed full-time in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series for the past 13 years. A well-rounded individual with experience across all racing platforms including motocross, ARCA, the Camping World Truck Series, and the Xfinity Series, Bowyer seems to have the perfect balance of career, family, business, philanthropy, recreation, and character. His innate ability to make you smile even when discussing pertinent issues related to the sport is a testament to his personality.

Recently, I spoke with arguably one of NASCAR’s funniest drivers and, of course, we spoke for a few minutes about ‘regular’ stuff including his definition of a redneck, but I also sought his opinion on serious matters such as the state of NASCAR and where he thinks the sport is headed. Here is what the Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford Performance driver had to say:

The Interview

[This interview was edited for clarity]

Tam: I just overheard you say that you consider yourself a redneck and you do redneck things. What are redneck things?

Bowyer: [Laughs] This is how the interview is going to start. This is awesome. Redneck things include burning things, blowing things up…yeah, having fun, those are redneck things. Partying in the infield at Talladega, I would consider highly redneck. I think I watched…I witnessed…I actually judged a nacho cheese eating contest in the infield of Talladega Friday night; that is redneck.

Tam: So is going to see Justin Moore in concert a redneck thing?

Bowyer: I think so. Yes, I am…yeah, that’s definitely redneck. That’s fun.

Tam: And I ask because I saw him perform in Indianapolis and he was talking about how to skin a buck, and I said, “Okay, I don’t know anything about that.”

Bowyer: [Laughs] He’s a good guy though…good guy, and a hell of a good singer.

Tam: I figured that the interview was going to take a life of its own because you have a lot of personality. So, my next question to you is, What is the dumbest question you’ve been asked by a fan?

Bowyer: I don’t think there’s any…no such thing as a dumb question because I probably make some of the most awkward questions out of how to bounce questions myself. So that being said, I like questions. The funniest thing that I ever get is kids asking questions because you never know what is going to come out of their mouth or what they’re thinking, you know. I enjoy people, I enjoy the interaction with those people, and I enjoy these different racetracks. As you go all around the country, those questions are different and certainly…a question asked by a fan at Talladega is way different than somebody in LA.

Tam: Well, Fontana is…I don’t know…Do you consider it, like, true race city?

Bowyer: Fontana is not LA.

Tam: Yeah, it’s a little different.

Bowyer: Why do you guys…there’s so many people that want to be in that traffic every day of their lives, like, you sign up for that. When you wake up and you’re trying to plan your day around traffic, the first thought that would go through my mind is 1-800-U-Haul.

Tam: As someone who was born and raised there but I lived in New York and I spent most of my summers in Kern County, Bakersfield area.

Bowyer: You went from LA to New York?

Tam: Yeah. I spent most of my summers in Bakersfield.

Bowyer: Getting better, getting better (sings) Streets of Bakersfield… Dwight Yoakam?

Tam: No

Bowyer: Buck Owens

Tam: No. I like house music, which is not a very LA thing.

Bowyer: Do you like the song “Streets of Bakersfield?” Do you even know what I’m talking about? [Laughs]

Tam: I don’t know that song. I’m sorry; I’m not a typical Los Angeles person.

Bowyer: [Laughs] I’m picking.

Tam: I know. But I mainly like house music.

Bowyer: Beyoncé?

Tam: No pop music. Okay, so a little twist of a question, if you were on a road trip, which three drivers, current or retired, aside from your teammates, would be in the car with you, Just strictly based on personality?

Bowyer: I think (Dale) Junior probably, and I’m not just saying that because he’s the fan favorite. He is a fun dude to hang out with…share a lot of the same things in common. We would probably need a driver though ’cause…

Tam: As you putting back beers? [Laughter]

Bowyer: Yeah, we would need a driver to take us. And you ask, another one…maybe…I’m going to say, Kevin Harvick.

Tam: Okay. If I was picking, it would be you and AJ.

Bowyer: Well, he’s got the beer sponsor so you need a guy like that, right? So we’re going to take it. My ideal trip would be a chauffeur driver, in the back of a party bus, that way we can enjoy some of Harvick’s sponsored beer.

Tam: If you were a team owner, who are you going with? Are you picking Richard Petty, “The King,” Dale Sr., or Rusty Wallace?

Bowyer: Oh, so we’re just like, any generation, anytime, if I could have drivers? I’m going to pick Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt.

Tam: Senior?

Bowyer: Yeah. And then for my third car, it would be Richard Petty, and my fourth car ’cause I can have a fourth car, would be probably 1995 Jeff Gordon.

Tam: Describe the difference between driving against the young drivers like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, versus older and retired drivers.

Bowyer: Well, here’s the thing, I think racing, in general, has changed quite a bit. I think, I’ve been doing it 12 years now so when you say older drivers… I think veteran drivers like myself, like Jeff Gordon was– who I learned from…Kevin Harvick. I just think the aspect of patience, you know…we’ve got stages now. You used to race a three and a half, sometimes four-hour races to get to the end of the race when that pay window is open to make a living, to win that race, to win a championship.

Now, the sense of urgency is so much more. You’ve got to be fast, you know, these cars, the tires. Everything is changed so much. It used to be, you couldn’t make 500 laps at Bristol a qualifying lap because the car wouldn’t take it. You’d blow a tire, you would have engine failure, and you would abuse the car enough to where it wouldn’t get to the end and give you that chance of a win. So, with technology being where it is today and the cars being so much better, it’s just, the game has changed so much.

So comparing the younger generation drivers to the older, I think we’ve just all experienced that, and it’s kind of hard sometimes for us to put ourselves in a qualifying lap procedure. Every single lap you’re out there like these kids have grown accustomed to because they’ve never been in a situation where they had to manage their tires, manage their race car to get it to the end.

Tam: Do you think they have an advantage?

Bowyer: These punk kids? Yeah, they’re young. They’re young and dumb, and they’re extremely talented. And here’s the thing about them being young, when we came into the sport I only had like a year and a half of seat time in a race car before I got my opportunity in Cup on asphalt. That was it. A year and a half of asphalt experience in general; never been in a heavy car, never done any of this stuff. These kids are racing– and I only raced two nights a week. These kids are racing all over the country, all the time, you know, tons of experience behind the wheel before they ever got to this stage.

I grew up racing motorcycles, you know what I mean. These kids have lived their whole lives focused on getting that opportunity, getting these heavy race cars, having the radial tires, and going back.

Tam: Do you actually like stage racing?

Bowyer: I don’t like it.

Tam: I ask, because you look at somebody like Ryan Newman who actually has won a race, but he’s not in the top 10 with points because Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, they’ve won a couple of stages.

Bowyer: Well, I don’t know that it’s because of the stages. I mean, at the end of the day, you need those stage points and they’re alive and you feel it every day, but you also have to finish this thing at the end, and you’ve got to have a fast, hot ride. You know, he capitalized on the situation and won a race. That was much-needed for him and RCR, and he did that because of his experience behind the wheel.

A call of strategy, a call to stay out and not take tires and then him being able to manage the situation on that restart and capitalize on that situation, and winning that race was because of his experience. A kid probably couldn’t have done that.

Tam: Got it. Fair enough. So, what makes Clint happy besides family, or aside from family, racing, and redneck things?

Bowyer: Oh man, just people. Hanging out with people and going to the lake. I like going to the lake. I have a lake house in Missouri, and just going over there because it’s all about people. You go out on a boat, you know, next thing you know, you’re eating lunch somewhere, and you’ve made friends with somebody and his family and those are friends for life. That’s what’s so cool about life in general. It’s all about friends, and relationships, and family, and getting the most out of it.

I guarantee you, my obituary is…I want it to be long and very understood. I don’t want it to be, nobody really knew him, nobody was at the…I want a long one. They come sliding in, half wore out, weathered and on fire, and he made a big splash in life. That’s what I want mine to read.

Tam: If you weren’t racing, what would you be doing?

Bowyer: Probably working at my dealership that I own. [Laughs] I don’t know if that makes any sense. I went back and had the opportunity to purchase the very dealership that my brother and I worked at, so it’s ultra special for me to be a business owner in my hometown– first and foremost, but to go back and have your name on the sign out front of the very place of employment for both of us was way special. So, I think that the neatest thing about racing is the opportunities that it provides.

Obviously, you make a good living racing all these cars and doing the things you love, but it’s not just about the money. It’s the opportunities; it’s the relationships you’ve built that have turned into things. That’s what I like about the sport. I’ve had a sponsor that is not even on my Cup car anymore and is still a part of everything I do from day to day.

They’re on the side of both my dirt late model teams, we made relationships with them, the outdoor industry…I just did a commercial last week with that very sponsor that I’ve had for several years, and that’s branched into other relationships and other opportunities in the outdoor industry and things like that.

That’s the cool thing about this sport that people don’t see, that behind-the-scenes stuff that you can really connect the dots with relationships that you’ve built within the sport.

Tam: Last question. What would people be surprised to know about you?

Bowyer: You know that’s the cool thing about this sport; people always ask “What do we not know about you?” Nothing. I don’t really hide anything, you know. I’ve brought people in and showed them my home, from where I grew up to where I live, and on the farm. I’m not one of those guys that hide that stuff. I’ve always been a guy that’s “The more the merrier.” Everybody is like, “Hey, who do you not want to come,” you know, if we’re going somewhere, or if we’re at the lake or… “Do you not want these people coming? You’re not…” Hell no, the more the merrier. Throw them all in. Let’s just have fun.

Next: Interview with Ford Performance's Tim Duerr

Tam: Hopefully, this interview wasn’t too painful. I tried to ask some serious questions.

Bowyer: That was awesome. I’m actually super impressed that a little lady from LA wants to talk NASCAR.