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NASCAR: Clint Bowyer finally paid up but smashed a trophy

ByAsher Fair|
Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NFL, whose jersey was worn by NASCAR announcer Clint Bowyer(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NFL, whose jersey was worn by NASCAR announcer Clint Bowyer(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Clint Bowyer finally paid up on a bet he made with former Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR Cup Series teammate Aric Almirola, but not without drama.

When we spoke to Clint Bowyer last June in what ended up being his final season of NASCAR Cup Series competition, his Kansas City Chiefs were still the reigning Super Bowl champions.

We wanted his thoughts on the 2020 season but told him we weren’t going to ask him if he thought the Chiefs would be back in the Super Bowl again.

“Because that would be a dumb question!” he interjected confidently.

He turned out to be 100% correct.

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But it was our follow-up question — and his answer — that ultimately proved to be wrong, leaving him in a bind with former Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola. We asked who he thought the Chiefs would play in Super Bowl LV. His response?

“Who cares?! They’re gonna be losers! That’s who it’s gonna be! Whoever decides to lose a Super Bowl, that’s who’s gonna play the Chiefs in the Super Bowl!”

As it turns out, they weren’t losers.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first team without a first round bye to win a Super Bowl since the Baltimore Ravens in February 2013 and the first non-division winner to pull it off since the Green Bay Packers in February 2011, and they crushed the Chiefs by a score of 31-9 to win their first Super Bowl in 18 years.

The Chiefs had entered the playoffs with not only the AFC’s best record but the league’s best record at 14-2, and one of those losses came with most of the backups in at the end of the regular season. The Buccaneers, who had lost to the Chiefs in the regular season by a score of 27-24, entered the playoffs as the NFC’s top Wild Card team with an 11-5 mark.

But Bowyer was so confident heading into the big game, which took place just over three weeks ago now at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, that he gladly accepted this offer from Almirola, who hails from Tampa.

And that’s where the fun began.

https://twitter.com/ClintBowyer/status/1357710363022753792

San Francisco 49ers fan Jeff Gordon, whom Bowyer joined in the Fox Sports booth ahead of the 2021 Cup Series season, made a similar bet with Bowyer last year and lost thanks to his team’s 31-20 Super Bowl LIV defeat at the hands of the Chiefs, forcing him to wear a Chiefs jersey in the booth.

Bowyer replied to Gordon’s “warning” to Almirola.

https://twitter.com/ClintBowyer/status/1357819758343819264

But as the game unfolded and it was obvious that the Buccaneers were going to prevail despite the Chiefs’ history of big playoff rallies, Bowyer all but conceded.

Almirola took notice.

And he didn’t forget about the bet.

He let the whole world know it too, following his victory in the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying race for the Daytona 500.

But by the time the Daytona 500 had come and gone, he found out that actually getting Bowyer to put the jersey on was more of a task than he would have liked it to be.

By comparison, Gordon wore his Chiefs jersey during Daytona 500 qualifying last year.

Bowyer then took a friendly swipe at Almirola’s early Daytona 500 wreck.

https://twitter.com/ClintBowyer/status/1361862402413899783

So when Almirola was in the booth for the Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday night, nearly two weeks later, he left Bowyer the Brady jersey, effectively leaving him with no more excuses.

Bowyer ended up wearing a completely different Brady jersey, and take a look at what happened next as he began to describe Brady’s now famous boat-to-boat Lombardi Trophy toss.

Only Clint.

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