Clint Bowyer: From Kansas Dirt Tracks to a Nationwide Title and a Fox Sports Booth

Clint Bowyer is an American former stock car driver, born in 1979, who raced in NASCAR's Cup Series from 2005 to 2020. He won the 2008 Nationwide Series championship for Richard Childress Racing. After retiring from full-time driving, he joined Fox Sports as a NASCAR analyst.

How did Bowyer's short-track career begin?

Bowyer started racing motocross at the age of five and went on to win more than two hundred races in the following eight years. In 1996 he moved into street stock racing at Thunderhill, a track in Mayetta, Kansas, and won the Modified title there in 2000.

In 2001 he won eighteen events and logged 32 finishes in the top five, claiming the Modified title at Lakeside Speedway, which sits in Kansas City, and at Heartland Park Topeka. The next year he entered the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series, where nine poles and twelve wins brought him second in the national standings.

That 2002 season also made him the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Midwest Champion. He added a Late Model title at I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Missouri, his first real attempt on asphalt.

From motocross at five to a Nationwide title and a Cup career that ended in a broadcast booth.

How did Richard Childress first spot him?

That same year he competed across a whole campaign in the AutoZone Elite Division Midwest tour, collecting a single top-ten result from eleven starts. He also made his first ARCA starts that year and led 47 laps and came second in his debut at Nashville Superspeedway, a ride arranged with Scott Traylor.

That result caught the eye of Richard Childress, who phoned to offer him a job. Bowyer initially assumed the call was a joke and hung up, but Childress rang back and still made the offer.

What were his first seasons in the Busch Series like?

In 2004 Bowyer finished eighth in an ARCA Re/Max race at Daytona for Scott Traylor, then began running the Busch Series for Childress. He shared the No. 21 Reese's Chevrolet with the veteran Kevin Harvick, drove in half of the 34 races that year and won one pole, at Talladega.

He collected seven top-ten finishes that season, with a season-high third place at Nashville Superspeedway in June. In the Camping World West Series he ran two races for Bill McAnally, taking one pole and a runner-up finish at best.

His first full Busch season came in 2005, when he replaced Ron Hornaday in the No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet. He claimed two poles and two wins, ending second to Martin Truex Jr., who was ahead by 68 points.

How did his Cup debut and rookie year go?

Bowyer made his Nextel Cup debut on April 23, 2005, at Phoenix International Raceway, where he took 22nd, the top car one lap behind. In October that year Childress announced that he would drive the No. 07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet full-time in 2006, replacing Dave Blaney.

His first Cup season produced three top-five finishes and eleven top-ten results, with a best of third at California. He ended 68 points adrift of Denny Hamlin in the rookie battle.

He kept driving the No. 2 in the Busch Series, won once and finished third in that championship. On November 3, 2006, he took a Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, only his third start in that series.

What made the 2007 season a breakthrough?

Bowyer's 2007 Daytona 500 ended dramatically in a last-lap crash, when he came across the stripe upside down and aflame, while Harvick took the win. He recovered to win the Budweiser pole for the Dodge Avenger 500 at Darlington.

Although his regular-season points placed him ninth, wins decide playoff seeding, and he was seeded twelfth. In September he took his second pole at Loudon and two days later won the Sylvania 300 there, his first Cup win, in his 64th start.

That win made him the fifteenth driver to win in all three of NASCAR's top series. In the Busch Series he won at Phoenix on April 20 and at Richmond on May 4, and he also ran selected Truck races for Harvick.

How did Bowyer win the 2008 Nationwide title?

In 2008 Bowyer raced full-time in both the Cup and Nationwide Series. At the Daytona 500 he dominated the late stages before Juan Pablo Montoya spun him out with seventeen laps remaining.

On May 3, 2008, he won the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond, his second Cup victory, after Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch tangled late in the race. In August he was named driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet. A sponsor-driven swap followed, with Casey Mears taking over the Jack Daniel's car and Bowyer moving to a General Mills car.

He clinched the Nationwide championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 15, 2008, finishing fifth in a race won by Carl Edwards. The title margin was 21 points.

What were the Richard Childress years like?

In 2009 Bowyer concentrated on the Cup Series and finished 15th in the standings with the No. 33 Chevrolet Impala. He trimmed his Nationwide schedule to twelve races but still won at Daytona and Dover and was in the top five in six of those races.

He started the Cup season strongly, finishing fourth at the Daytona 500 and second at Las Vegas, and he was second in points after six races. A tough run through the middle of the year dropped him to 17th, and a spin at Atlanta cost him two laps and his Chase hopes.

In 2010 he was sixth after seven races before a major wreck at Texas on lap 317 eliminated eight cars. At Darlington brake trouble left him 36 laps down, and at Talladega he went on to win the fall race, edging Kevin Harvick at the line.

At New Hampshire he took the lead and won as Tony Stewart ran out of fuel, but the victory was negated after the post-race inspection. Crew chief Shane Wilson was suspended and the team lost 150 championship points, which dropped Bowyer to 12th. He still finished tenth in the final Chase standings.

How did Bowyer's final seasons at Richard Childress Racing end?

In 2011 he led 31 laps at the Daytona 500 and salvaged a 17th-place finish from a wild race. At the Aaron's 499 at Talladega he led the most laps but lost to Jimmie Johnson by 0.002 seconds in a four-wide finish.

At New Hampshire he led 49 of the last 51 laps before Tony Stewart passed him with two laps left. On October 7, 2011, he signed a three-year deal to drive for Michael Waltrip Racing from 2012.

Bowyer did not make the Chase that year, but he won the fall Talladega race for the second year running, by 0.018 seconds. That was the final victory of his RCR tenure.

What did the 2012 season at Michael Waltrip Racing bring?

The team had added Scott Miller, once RCR's director of competition, and Mark Martin as a teammate. The changes produced Bowyer's strongest season statistically in the Cup Series.

The year began with a disallowed Daytona 500 qualifying time and a fuel problem. At Martinsville in March, a late three-wide move in a battle with Jeff Gordon drew a rivalry that lasted through the year, and Bowyer apologised for the contact.

In June he dominated the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, the first road course win of his career and his first with MWR. At Richmond he used fuel strategy to win after being spun by Juan Pablo Montoya, and he won again at Charlotte in the Chase.

The rivalry with Gordon came to a head at Phoenix in November, when Gordon wrecked him intentionally and the two teams scuffled. Bowyer was not penalised, yet Brian Pattie, the crew chief, faced a $35,000 fine. Bowyer finished second at Homestead and ended the year with a career-best second in the final points standings.

What were the Michael Waltrip Racing years like after 2012?

In 2013 Bowyer started the season by driving a Ferrari 458 in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with AF Corse and Michael Waltrip Racing, finishing 16th overall. In September a late spin at Richmond raised accusations of an intentional effort to help a teammate make the Chase.

NASCAR fined MWR $300,000 and docked all three of its teams 50 driver points, although Bowyer kept enough points to stay in the Chase. In 2014 he was caught in a last-lap crash at the Budweiser Duel that sent his car airborne, and at Darlington he ran into the rear of Kurt Busch's car, which spun and crashed.

In 2015 Bowyer and MWR announced in August that they would part ways. He finished the season sixteenth in the championship, winless and with twelve top 10s.

How did his move to Stewart-Haas Racing go?

Bowyer spent 2016 at HScott Motorsports, a season that produced 27th in the points with three top 10s. Tony Stewart's retirement then gave him the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Fusion for 2017.

In 2017 he was runner-up at Sonoma, with Kevin Harvick ahead of him, a result that gave Stewart-Haas a 1-2 finish for the first time since 2011. He finished 18th in the final standings.

In 2018 he broke a 190-race winless streak at Martinsville on March 26, and later won the rain-shortened race at Michigan in June. He advanced to the Round of 8 and finished twelfth in the points.

How did Bowyer finish his full-time driving career?

The 2019 season was inconsistent, although he won the pole at Las Vegas on September 14, his first since 2007. He qualified for the playoffs by finishing fifth at Indianapolis and finished ninth in the final points standings.

In March 2020 he won the pole for the Auto Club 400, his fourth career pole. His second-place result at the spring Bristol race was his 82nd and last top five, and his 226th and final top-ten finish came at Martinsville.

He finished 14th in his last race at Phoenix and placed twelfth in the 2020 standings. On October 8, 2020, he disclosed that a seat in Fox's booth awaited him the next year, which meant leaving the driver's seat behind.

What has Bowyer done since leaving the driver's seat?

Bowyer co-hosted a podcast called Rubbin is Racing with Dave Portnoy. He has worked as a color commentator on Fox broadcasts, including an Xfinity race at Pocono in 2019 and the NASCAR coverage from 2021 onward.

He returned briefly on May 29, 2024, when he was announced as the driver of Spire Motorsports' No. 7 truck for Nashville, ending an eight-year absence from the Truck Series. Away from the Cup circuit he has also run a dirt late model team, Clint Bowyer Racing, which won the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model title in 2014.