NASCAR Cup Series: Clint Bowyer celebration trip to the Final Four?

Will Clint Bowyer be celebrating his first NASCAR Cup Series victory since the 2012 season with a trip to the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas?

Clint Bowyer won his first NASCAR Cup Series race since he won at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina in October of 2012 when he won Monday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway Virginia.

Bowyer had gone 190 consecutive races without winning in the Cup Series, which was his career-long win drought. But he pulled through and won for the first time in 191 at Martinsville for the ninth win of his 13-year full-time Cup Series career, which dates back to 2006.

Bowyer’s win was his first since he began driving for Stewart-Haas Racing last season as Tony Stewart’s replacement in the #14 Ford after he retired following the conclusion of the 2016 season (although Stewart drove the #14 Chevrolet).

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By winning at Martinsville, Bowyer became the first driver in NASCAR history to win races driving a Chevrolet, a Toyota and a Ford, as he won multiple races driving a Chevrolet when he drove for Richard Childress Racing from the 2006 season to the 2011 season and he won multiple races driving a Toyota when he drove for Michael Waltrip Racing from the 2012 season to the 2015 season.

Bowyer, an Emporia, Kansas native and a Kansas Jayhawks fan, asked his wife Lorra after the race if he could attend the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas this upcoming Saturday to celebrate his first Cup Series win since the 2012 season, as the Jayhawks are set to take on the Villanova Wildcats in one of the two Final Four matchups after knocking off the Duke Blue Devils in a thriller on Sunday evening in the final game of the Elite Eight.

The other matchup is set to featured the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers and the Michigan Wolverines. Ironically, the Kansas Jayhawks’ most recent Final Four appearance was in 2012, just as Bowyer’s most recent NASCAR Cup Series win was prior to Monday, so it would only make sense for him to be allowed to attend the historic event. Plus, there is no Cup Series race this weekend.

Here is how that discussion involving Bowyer and his wife went, according to ESPN.

"“When is it? It’s this weekend, right? Hey, babe. This is a positive thing. Can I ride this wave of momentum and make it?”"

Here is how his wife responded.

"“No.”"

But Bowyer persisted…

"“It’s KU.”"

…only to be shot down once more.

"“Don’t care.”"

Here is how Bowyer responded.

"“It sounds like there’s no chance that that’s going to happen. I had my best friend and their two kids here for a week, seven days, and she enlightened me that that was a lot on her plate. So I’d say that, yeah, I’m going to be watching in my basement. That tested my heart last night watching them. I was like, ‘They just gave this away.’ With that seven-point lead, you get cocky…The ol’ Kansas boys won, and it was a good week to be a Kansan.”"

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NASCAR, along with Formula 1, IndyCar and Formula E, are all off this weekend as Easter is celebrated across the world, so be sure to tune in to the two Final Four matchups this Saturday evening at 6:09 pm ET and 8:49 pm ET on TBS.