CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Ford Fusion — DO YOU FEEL THIS IS A MAKE OR BREAK YEAR FOR YOU? “I have been doing this what, 12 years, and now it is make or break year? Every year is a make or break year. It doesn’t matter if it is your first year or your third year or your 12th year. It is always that pressure and it is always on. Nobody puts that on. We are competitors. I have raced since I was five years old. I have always wanted to win. Once you get a taste of that, there is no going back from that. Last year, it was disappointing. My disappointment came from a lack of consistency. That has always been my m.o. and how I was always able to make playoffs if I did or compete for a championship if we did. It was through consistency and knocking on the door and not having bad runs. We were spraying it all over the place last year. We would have good runs and bad runs and I really look for Stewart-Haas to smooth those things out. That manufacturer change was the best thing, in my opinion, that they have done in a long time. You are going to have growing pains because you have to learn a whole new everything. From your database to the aero platform to all that stuff. To have that behind us, the winter, the off-season has been way easier. It was pretty chaotic last year. I think we have weathered that storm and we are ready.”
YOU ARE FUN TO LISTEN TO ON THE RADIO. DO YOU EVER GO BACK AND LISTEN TO YOURSELF? “No, hell no. And people remind you all week long and there is a stupid show that comes on whatever day it is. I ought to get a damn trophy for it though. That is what makes me mad. If you are going to use me, at least pay me.”
YOU TALKED ABOUT THE GROWING PAINS. DO YOU ATTRIBUTE MOST OF THE LACK OF CONSISTENCY FROM THE MANUFACTURER CHANGE LAST YEAR? “I think it did. Some of it was us. A new team and everything else. Looking back on last year, which I hate to do, it was a lot of new. It was constant catching up and learning and trying to get your cars back to the track with those enhancements, whatever it was. It was just a lot. It was very taxing on everybody at that shop. You saw it from the management to the army down on the floor. It was all hands on deck constantly. I am not saying it won’t be there year but you would learn something and then it would be like, ‘now we have to hurry up and get it to the track and how soon can that happen?’ Then by that time something else had come along. It was very chaotic it seemed like.”
DESPITE ALL THAT IT SEEMED LIKE YOU WERE HAVING MORE FUN LAST YEAR THAN YOU HAVE EVER HAD. “That is the fit factor. You are around people you enjoy. People I have raced with a long time. The comfort level is there. Racing alongside Kevin (Harvick) again and having him in competition meetings. Kurt was fun. Kurt is a hell of a driver. Nobody can question that. The crew chiefs. Everybody. It is a fun camp to be around. A competitive camp. That is why I look forward to it being even better this year, I really do. All those bumps in the road and growing pains won’t be around this year.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR NEW TEAMMATE ARIC ALMIROLA WILL BRING? “Of course he is a good dude and I think he is a great asset to our already great organization. I think he is a good guy. He really is. His family is awesome. They are always at the track and his kids are always running around. You can tell a lot about a guy by how his kids act. He has great kids. The racer in him, he has never had that opportunity. No knock on anything he has ever been in but this is his opportunity to shine in good equipment and I look for him to do so.”
HOW DOES ARIC FEEL ABOUT MAKING THAT TRANSITION? “I am not Aric. You will have to ask him how he feels. But I am going to be driving the Daytona 500 coming up here soon and I am looking forward to having him as a teammate as well. Sorry, I can’t help but being a smart ass.”
WHAT DO YOU DO DIFFERENTLY GOING INTO THIS YEAR? “You just use all the things you learned last year. I am telling you, I wasn’t lying, a lot of the bumps in the road last year really stemmed in my thought process looking back at it from a lot of chaotic times of trying to learn and evolve as a company. That isn’t just one car. You have a lot of things that have to happen. If you learn something with that new body that you have never seen before or a new engine package you have never had before or new database. There was just so much new that you were constantly having to learn and all the while competing against people that were steady-Eddie same old for them. We are going to have to be better than we were last year. The competition is going to be better. Another manufacturer has stepped it up with aero and and new car and everything else. There are new tracks and the new tech procedures. I think it is going to be another step of what we saw last year, even worse at times. I think they have come up with a good name. The room of doom.”
DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE TO WIN THIS YEAR THAN IN YEARS PAST? “I felt a lot of pressure the first year. I thought Richard (Childress) was going to fire me the second race. I wrecked big time. There is always pressure in this sport. I think as long as it has been, it would be ultra special. I think it will mean more. I think you will respect it and embrace it more.”
YOU GOT CLOSE A COUPLE TIMES. “We were spraying it all over the place. Good runs, good qualifying efforts sometimes, then two terrible ones, then run good again. It was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ We were fast one week and not in the game the next week. You couldn’t figure out a pattern. Didn’t have that baseline where we could just unload each week and fine tune it from there. It was unload good one week and the next time off the truck it was in left field and struggled all week long with it.”
“You have somebody getting in Jeff Gordon’s car, somebody getting in Dale Jr.’s car. We have to figure out how to fill that void somehow and it can’t always been the same guys that have been there. I get it. If they deserve it, push it now. If people are beating them — there were drivers last year. Look at Matt Kenseth. He was outrunning them pretty much every week and not getting the limelight. Some of those things are bothersome at times. Did I deserve it? I wasn’t running as good as I needed to. If I was running up front and should have been in the limelight I would have been barking back a little bit.”
IF THERE IS ONE THING YOU COULD CHANGE ABOUT YOUR CAR FROM LAST YEAR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “Confetti. More confetti. That is what I would want to change about my ride from last year. Hey, it was a learning year man. I am telling you. There was a lot to overcome last year and you hate making excuses and talking about last year and everything. There is no excuses but there was a lot to overcome at SHR and I think the people there did a great job of handling all of it and making the most of it in a short amount of time. Things happened quick last year and the next thing you knew it was playoff time and it was over for us. It was trying to learn as much as we could to make that 4 car as fast as possible to win the championship. Things were happening at a rapid pace last year.”
DO YOU FEEL PRESSURE TO GET BACK TO VICTORY LANE? “Yes. Same pressure I felt the first race from 12 years ago.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE SEASON JUST ENDED? “No. These kids change your life in an offseason. No more vacations and galavanting around. It is dad duty. I was home probably five weeks. I think the most I have every been home since I moved to North Carolina was maybe three weeks. It was like chomping at the bit. I had a friend call and say, ‘Hey, you wanna go to Nashville?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I am going to start walking now.’ Just to do something you know? It is a ton of fun. The holidays are just way more meaningful and enjoyable. You are over it quick though. The entertaining and partying and eating, my God. You are over that by New Years. I didn’t even make it to New Years. I wanted to go back to work. So, I enjoyed one last hurrah. We went to Aspen last weekend for my wife’s birthday and had a ton of fun but I am so ready to go to Daytona and get started.”
YOU NEVER WISHED THE SEASON WAS SHORTER? “Yes, every year about August. But every year in January I can’t wait to get back to work.”
SO HOW DO YOU MENTALLY PUSH YOURSELF FROM AUGUST TO THE END OF THE YEAR EACH SEASON? “Breathe. You just do. Once the season starts the sport happens so fast that you are so over the week prior. Monday morning it is focusing on the next week. Sometimes even before then. I have known several times guys that when you walk into the hauler during practice at Daytona and you are talking about the next race. Is is like, hey, pretty big race going on here you know. I promise you that you will walk in and engineers will be focusing on Atlanta during the Daytona 500 because there is a lot of downtime and you have what you’ve got. The bullets are in the chamber and ready to be fired. You are worried about the next bullet for Atlanta.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF AS A DRIVER THESE LAST TWO YEARS? “Every year you learn from the people you are around and the organization you are with and manufacturer you are with. I have enjoyed all of it. I have enjoyed every manufacturer and organization I have been with. Maybe not everyone, but for the most part I really have embraced and learned a lot from every place I have ever been. The last two years, yeah, that is the struggle. You get in a new environment and so excited to get on a race track but it doesn’t change. The competition is still out there. Your victory lane speech is not written until it happens. Nothing is set in stone no matter where you are at. It is all about people. It doesn’t matter if you are with the best organization out there, if you aren’t surrounded with the right people to get the most out of you so that you can get the most out of them then it is not going to happen. It doesn’t matter what organization it is. We had dominant cars last year and some of them didn’t win.”
YOU SAID EARLIER YOU CAN TELL ALOT ABOUT A GUY BY THE WAY HIS KIDS ACT. “Yeah, I apologize. I have failed miserably. No, my kid surprises me. He is way more mild mannered and calm and chill than I have ever been. There are other kids you see running around and it is like, ‘Yep, that is exactly what I thought he would act like.’
WILL YOUR FAMILY BE WITH YOU MORE AT THE RACES, LESS AT THE RACES? “I think, just learning from my peers. Until they get old enough where they are in school and things, that is what takes over. As long as they are young, yeah, that is your support group. It has always been that way. Everybody needs a support group. This sport is so challenging and so competitive. The ups and downs are so challenging. It is literally a roller coaster. You go from those highs and can’t experience a more gratifying feeling and then this sport will slam you with something bad and there is nothing more crushing. To have that support group, a wife and kids or even my parents and brothers are always at the race track. A good support group, family or friends, have always been important to me.”
THERE ARE A LOT OF DALE JUNIOR FANS OUT THERE MAYBE LOOKING FOR A NEW DRIVER TO FOLLOW. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THEM TO CONVINCE THEM TO GET BEHIND YOU? “Well, we have to see how Bowman does I guess. If he fails, I am coming for them. I will give him a month and then I will start my campaign.”
YOU HAVE INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF THE CUP CAR. WHAT ARE YOU INVOLVED WITH AND WHAT YOU LOOK FORWARD TO. “Kind of the same old thing. Lucas Oil Late Model series. That is fun in the offseason for me, having that and being at the shop. I was polishing the side of the hauler yesterday. All the tires came for speedweeks. There is literally a semi-load of tires to be mounted. They are going tested in Brunswick for the first race of the year. Penske was there with a shop guy and going though all that stuff. That is ultra competitive and it has really become even more so as the engineering and everything has crept in just like this sport. That is my fun. That is what I do for fun. That is what I enjoy. I am at the shop and I enjoy that during the week, working on those cars. It is no different than the Cup Series. You have new stuff and got the pit box done and the new hot rods are sitting there and the engines, just put one in and blew some smoke yesterday in the five-ball. That is what it is all about. When you are a racer, you can’t get away from it. If it is the offseason and there is a hot-rod sitting there you are going to be working on it.”
DO YOU HATE YOU CAN’T BE MORE INVOLVED? “No, they do a great job. My drivers with the chassis we run, I am very proud of our dirt program and enjoy it and love the partnerships we have. A lot of those things have been with me a long time. I really enjoy it.”
QUESTION INAUDIBLE: “You don’t appreciate it because it comes easy. Your cars are fast, you are leading laps and winning races. When you get back there you are going to appreciate it. The bad times are what make you appreciate the good times. The good times are easy to overlook. When you struggle and you work hard to get back and appreciate those good times, that is when you really embrace it and realize just how good it is.”
