CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
What was the experience like with the Kansas City Royals this week?
“I’m thinking go to the game, tailgate with friends in the parking lot, have a couple beers, take in a ballgame – like everybody else and enjoy the night. Oh no, I showed up and suited me up and we went and had batting practice, went to the bullpen and (Jeremy) Guthrie (pitcher, Kansas City Royals) threw some stuff at me. He threw a fastball by me and then a curveball. Man, I’m telling you, when you stand in front of that baseball it gives you a whole new appreciation for a professional level of ball like that – holy cow. Here I am, my knees are already buckled and I’m starting to get out of the way and by the time it hits the dirt it’s like 12 feet away from you. It wasn’t even close. Great experience, fun to see the Royals. It’s been a great ride here so far and they ain’t done yet.”
Do you have any concerns about the new rules package here at Kansas with the corner speeds?
“It’s kind of exactly opposite of what all the drivers were asking for and hoping for. They’re (NASCAR) constantly working to improve the package that the race fan sees as a whole. It is a little bit disappointing and in my opinion you need more off-throttle time to create a racing environment on the race track. If you’re wide open and you’re not lifting, I don’t know how you’re going to get around that car in front of you when they’re doing the same. That being said, you have to make the most of out of tracks like this. You have to have fast equipment, a fast race car and ultimately a lot of horsepower under the hood. That being said, it is what it is and it’s just like Jeff (Gordon) said earlier, there’s a lot of different ways to win. You don’t have to have the fastest car, but it certainly makes it a lot easier when you do have the fastest car when you’re in an environment where the corner speeds are so high.”
What is MWR fighting in the intermediate program?
“Anytime you’re in any kind of competition you’re trying to better yourself until you’re the best and then you’re still trying to better yourself. We know we’re behind so this is definitely the area we’ve been working on. We’ve been working very hard in the wind tunnel and trying to find some aero advantages, some gains that we feel like we’re behind on the aero side of it. Then the engine guys have been working hard on trying to make some gains under the hood as well because we know we’re behind there too. Those are the two big hitters on a fast mile-and-a-half race track like this and when you’re behind in both of them it makes it pretty hard. They have, they’ve made gains in both and I’m looking forward to getting on the race track and hopefully reaping the benefits of their hard work.”
Where were you and what was your reaction to this race being called the SpongeBob SquarePants 400?
“I wish I was with my five-year old nephew when he heard that it was going to be the SpongeBob SquarePants 400. SpongeBob is a big deal, he’s got his own race. Somebody told me that it’s been around since 1999 or something so Sponge is old too. Is that the trophy? They’re just going to hand you an old sponge and send you on your way – go home and scrub up. That’s one way to save some money on a trophy, just call in the SpongeBob SquarePants sponge and send them on their way. You know you’re always looking for a younger demographic and what a better way to attract that younger demographic, I can’t imagine any younger kid not wanting to come to the SpongeBob SquarePants race – it’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s a lot of cars that have the characters on their cars so they’ve done a good job creating and building a good package for this race. I just tweeted that I woke up this morning and you always feel better when you wake up in Kansas, but I was like, ‘I’ve had a hell of a good time already and we haven’t even got in a car yet.’ I’ve been to a ballgame, we’ve ate more barbeque than we should have, I went to Bass Pro Shops, I went to Legends last night and shopped – where else can you go to a race track and do all these things in a days’ time during a little bit of a rain delay and some down time and enjoy yourself all within walking distance or so from here. Great race track, great facility and it’s always fun to come back here.”
Have you had a chance to spend some time with David Ragan?
“We talked at driver intros, driver intros is a big opportunity to catch up with your fellow drivers so last week’s driver intros we talked a little bit. Obviously after this first practice we’ll be talking a lot more and it will be interesting to see after he’s been in the (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) cars what’s he feel in our cars and maybe where we’re better and where we’re not as good. That’s a good – right now when we know we’ve been behind and we are really working hard to better ourselves and figure this all out, it’s a good asset to have, somebody that’s been in pretty damn good equipment with kind of the same horsepower under the hood so the feel is all going to be aero, it’s going to be chassis and stuff like that. I’m looking forward to hearing his input after the first practice.”
“Everybody, but nobody puts any more pressure on yourself than you do. It really comes from within and if it doesn’t then you’re probably not going to be in your profession very long. This track, it would mean a great deal to win at this place. Right now, it’s so funny as you go through your career, in any sport there’s times where you know damn well that you’re really close to wins and there’s other times when you couldn’t be any farther away from that feeling. Certainly, this year has tested a little bit of both of those. I’ve watched these guys work so hard on this car and bring a new car with a lot of potential and a lot of momentum and hard work put into it. There’s a great deal of pride knowing that those guys worked that hard for me, for my home track and ultimately this is our next swing at the bat so I’m looking forward to going out there and seeing our hard work hopefully put on display with a fast race car. You always have that pressure and when you go home it’s that much more because all your friends will start calling last Thursday – ‘Are you ready to win Kansas? We’re going to be there Tuesday, are you ready?’ It would be awesome to win here. We’re going to need a hospital if we win here.”What is it about Erik Jones that has impressed you?
“I think just the same thing you saw in Kyle Larson and all these young kids, they’ve been racing since they were old enough to get in and hold a steering wheel up. Not only racing, but they were racing at a touring level. There’s a difference between just racing at home at the same track every week and finding a good setup, knowing every driver you’re around, but these kids are touring all across the country and some of them all around the world racing in different formats and different competitors each and every week. Every time they’re at the race track, they’re driving against somebody new. When you throw them to the wolves like they’ve been, like Erik Jones is getting this weekend, it’s no big deal to them and it doesn’t register. They’re focused on the things they’re supposed to be focused on and that’s so hard to understand. I couldn’t imagine with the little experience that I had when I first started on asphalt just going straight to Cup within a year or so time. It’s a great deal and a huge challenge to overcome and that’s the neat thing is that they’re right off the bat stepping in and working on the race car instead of freaking out that they’re next to Jeff Gordon on the race track. That would be easily understandable to do.”
Are you confident that MWR is on the right path to turning things around?
“Looking back at the start of the year, that west coast swing sucked and I’ll never forget it was Darrell Waltrip was telling me somewhere that it was his idea and how much fun it was. I’m like, ‘No, that was horrible, that was the worst idea ever.’ He’s like, ‘What are you talking about? It’s the west coast swing baby.’ I’m like, ‘No, it was three weeks of hell is what it was,’ because you’re already prepared for all three of those races a month ahead of time. By the time we went to Daytona, I already had to have everything ready for that west coast swing. You get out there and you find yourself behind, how do you get caught up? The guys, the crews and everybody is out there – you’ve got what you got. That’s a month and then you get back and it takes a month to get sorted out what direction because obviously you’ve been down a path, you’re headed down that direction 100 percent with full speed ahead and all of the sudden you have to pull the reins back and change direction, figure out what direction to go and head down that direction and that’s another month. Now we’re two months into this thing and just now starting to see this next path and that west coast swing, three races right there right off the bat was a big part of that. You can’t blame anything, we should have been ready and we thought we were ready, but unfortunately we weren’t. There’s been a lot of crazy things that have happened too. Brian (Vickers) and the unfortunate thing that he had, how do you forecast that? Then that put us behind and forced Brett Moffitt to step in and really do something that he’s never been involved with too and then also get in a car that really wasn’t running as well as it should have too. That was a huge undertaking for him and he did a hell of a job. That kid is a good race car driver, a great kid and I think he’s going to have some more opportunities at the Cup level so I’m glad to see that.”
“One more thing before I go, 5-hour ENERGY like we always do, the cherry-flavored 5-hour ENERGY that’s come out, it’s the Special Opps Warrior Foundation that five cents of every bottle – you hear five cents and you think it’s not much, but millions of bottles later that’s a lot of money. Looking forward to having a good run and it’s all because of cherry-flavored 5-hour ENERGY.”
