Bowyer: Driving No. 14 like falling in cow manure and smelling like roses
Tony Stewart, your challenge has been accepted.
Stewart, who announced his Sprint Cup Series retirement following the 2016 season on Wednesday, joked that he wanted to see a headline with Clint Bowyer’s analogy. Bowyer, who is replacing Stewart in the No. 14 car in 2017, made a farm reference when talking about getting the opportunity to drive Stewart’s car.
“I don’t really – I don’t think I got fired; it just went away, and somehow you landed in a way better situation,” Bowyer said of the end of his tenure at Michael Waltrip Racing. “Do you ever hear that term when you fall in a pile of cow manure and come out smelling like roses? That’s exactly what this is for me.”
Bowyer’s current team, Michael Waltrip Racing, is shutting down at the end of the season. Bowyer will be driving elsewhere in 2016, likely on a one-year deal, and then moving over to the No. 14 after Stewart completes his final tour of the Cup Series.
“You know, everything in racing is timing, and the opportunity to get somebody like Clint Bowyer, I mean, that’s when you know you seize the opportunity,” Stewart said. “We’re probably going to have a hard time working together and communicating with each other. We probably won’t have any fun racing. It’s the right time, it’s the right opportunity, and when somebody in a scenario like Clint’s this year came about, you jump on those opportunities, and you know that timing is everything.”
Bowyer is widely expected to have a ride at HScott Motorsports for the 2016 season. The team has an alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing. Bowyer said Wednesday that any announcements about his temporary home would be made later in the week.
Bowyer’s unveiling at Stewart-Haas also came the same day that his current team’s penalty appeal was denied by NASCAR’s appeals panel. Bowyer, who is in the Chase, saw his team penalized 25 points for a violation during opening inspection at Chicago. The penalty wiped out the points he earned at Chicago. After the appeal was denied, MWR said it would not place a final appeal of the penalties.
The penalties also included a fine and three-race suspension for crew chief Billy Scott.
Bowyer hasn’t won a race since 2012, when he finished second in the standings. He made the Chase in 2013 and while he’s back for the third time in four seasons, he hasn’t been consistently competitive as MWR slowly unraveled.
“Just like I said earlier, to think of that door opening, and holy cow, the timing couldn’t have been any better for myself, just somebody was looking after me,” Bowyer said. “To line up with this championship‑winning organization and then kind of alluding to what you asked Tony there, his championships and everything that he’s done, it’s really easy to understand what he’s done on the racetrack, but his brand, I’ve lived through my whole life of Tony Stewart’s brand and what that means to motorsports, what it means to younger drivers coming up through weekly racing series all through the country, my late model teams that are racing nationally.”
“Attaching your name to that brand and building on that, the people you can attract, just look at this powerhouse that he has helped create, and it’s because of that brand of Tony Stewart and the people flock to that, whether it’s employees or partners or whatever the case may be. Definitely when I heard that that seat was open, I was on board. They didn’t have to call me.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
