It’s taken me about a week to get my thoughts together. I have read the thoughts of many about the loss of Bryan Clauson and the racing community continues to show how they come together in times of tragedy.
You saw it when we lost Jason Leffler. You saw it when we lost Kramer Williamson and we saw it with the loss of Bryan Clauson.
One example was the scoring pylon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that displayed just the name Bryan Clauson, the Monday following his death, as a gesture of respect.
When I saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pace the field at the Knoxville Nationals in Clauson’s winged sprint car, it sent chills up my back. After hearing that people were lined up on Thursday to get Clauson T-shirts two hours before the trailer opened, I was amazed. Seeing pictures of Danica Patrick selling Clauson T-shirts shows how much he meant to her.
To top it off, there was an auction at Knoxville to raise money for the Clauson family and Tony Stewart was Tony Stewart. He bid $32,000 on Bryan’s favorite helmet and immediately gave it back to Clauson’s fiancé.
Everything that has happened since we lost Bryan Clauson has been 100 percent Class Act.
The special acts continued. All the XFINITY cars had BC’s initials on them this weekend and it was announced Monday that Stenhouse will run the same Fastenal paint scheme that Clauson ran when he drove in NASCAR. It shows how much Bryan Clauson was respected in the NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt racing communities.
Robin Miller said it best; Bryan Clauson was a bad ass racer and will truly be missed.
Let’s take a breath, collect our thoughts and start moving forward.
It’s Bristol week and we will see the next phase of trying to fix what Bristol allegedly screwed up. It used to be one groove on the bottom and to pass someone, you had to basically punt them out of the way. Now, since they put down new concrete and changed the banking, everyone is running around the top. We will see how “shining” the bottom groove does. I hope it makes Bristol a two-groove track and we will see passing and not punting.
Harlow’s prediction for Bristol: There will be at least one five-car pileup. The NBC broadcast team will barely mention the Tennessee – Virginia Tech football game coming up on Sept. 10 because the game is on ABC. We will have a surprise winner on Saturday night. Kyle Larson wins the Bristol night race and qualifies for the Chase.
Enjoy the races, keep the Clauson family in your prayers and we’ll talk soon when I share the View from my Recliner.
