CLINT BOWYER No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Team Report Round 1 of 36 – Advance Auto Parts Clash & Daytona 500 – Daytona Car No.: 14 – Advance Auto Parts Clash: Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing Daytona 500: Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing At Track PR Contact: Drew Brown with True Speed Communication (704-498-7596 or [email protected]) Primary Team Members: Driver: Clint Bowyer Crew Chief: Mike Bugarewicz Hometown: Emporia, Kansas Hometown: Lehighton, Pennsylvania Car Chief: Jerry Cook Engine Builder: Roush Yates Racing Hometown: Toledo, Ohio Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller Spotter: Brett Griffin Hometown: Monroe, New York Hometown: Pageland, South Carolina Over-The-Wall Crew Members: Gas Man: James “Ace” Keener Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder Hometown: Fortuna, California Hometown: Sioux City, Iowa Windshield: Chris Trickett Rear Tire Changer: Coleman Dollarhide Hometown: Grafton, West Virginia Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina Jackman: Sean Cotten Tire Carrier: Dwayne Moore Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina Hometown: Griffin, Georgia Road Crew Members: Truck Drivers: Dale Lackey and Christopher Hamilton Tire Specialist: Russell Simpson Hometowns: Taylorsville, North Carolina and Muncie, Indiana, respectively Hometown: Medford, New York Engineers: Lee Deese and James Kimbrough Shock Specialist: Wayne Smith Hometowns: Rockingham, North Carolina, and Pensacola, Florida, respectively Hometown: Melbourne, Australia Mechanics: Tony Silvestri and Robbie Fairweather Hometowns: Sylvania, Ohio, and Westbrookville, New York respectively Notes of Interest: Bowyer owns career totals of 10 wins, two poles, 73 top-five finishes, 196 top-10s and 2,850 laps led in 469 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races. He also owns eight Xfinity Series victories. His most recent Cup Series victory came at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn (June 10, 2018). His most recent Cup Series pole came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon (Sept. 16, 2007). The 2019 season marks the 11th season of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). The Kannapolis, North Carolina-based team is co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas and has recorded 51 points-paying victories and 44 poles since its inception in 2009. It also owns three non-points victories in the Cup Series and three Xfinity Series victories. Stewart won the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series title, and Kevin Harvick gave SHR its second title in 2014. Then SHR driver Kurt Busch won the 2017 Daytona 500. Harvick won eight times in 2018, while Bowyer won twice and Aric Almirola and Busch once each. All four SHR drivers advanced to the Round of 8 of the Cup Series playoffs. The 2019 Clash will be the first for Bowyer since finishing 23rd in the 2016 race. Bowyer has raced five times in the Clash with his best finish of eighth in 2012. This year’s Clash is a 75-lap race and includes a yellow flag for a competition caution after the completion of lap 25. The race is scheduled for an approximate 3 p.m. EST start, following Daytona 500 front-row qualifying. Drivers who competed full-time in the Cup Series in 2018 are eligible for the 2019 Clash if they won a pole for a points-paying race last season, have a Daytona 500 pole to their credit, were among the 16 playoff drivers in 2018, or are previous winners of the Daytona 500 or the Clash. In the 2018 Can-Am Duel Qualifying race for the Daytona 500, Bowyer started eighth and finished fourth. Bowyer raced in the top-10 when he narrowly missed a spinning Erik Jones in a lap-12 accident. Bowyer made a lap-13 pit stop for four tires and adjustments to fix his loose handling condition. When the race restarted, he climbed into the top-four where he remained for the rest of the race. SHR Fords scored three top-five finishes in the Can-Am Duels at Daytona. -more- Clint Bowyer – Daytona Team Report Page Two In the 2018 Daytona 500, Bowyer started 10th and finished 15th. He spent the early part of the race dodging accidents and warning his crew survival would be the key to success in the restrictor-plate race. He raced in the top-10 at the halfway mark and felt he had a chance to win, especially when he dodged a multicar accident on lap 101. Seconds later, he told the crew he felt the car was down a cylinder. He lost two laps on pit lane as the crew made repairs. He made up one lap before the end of the race and finished 15th. Bowyer said: “I kept telling my guys to stay patient, there were going to be more wrecks. Sure enough, that’s what happened and we avoided any damage but, when I got on the brakes hard, something happened because we were now down a cylinder. We tried, but there was no way to fix it.” Clint Bowyer’s most famous Daytona 500 moment remains sliding upside down across the finish line on fire at the conclusion of the 2007 race. A last-corner accident left Bowyer unhurt but with an 18th-place finish in one of the more dramatic moments in the sport’s history. His current SHR teammate and then Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick won the race. Bowyer still fields questions about that finish, comparing it to scenes from the movie “Talladega Nights.” Bowyer led 490 laps in 2018. That surpassed a career best of 400 set in 2010.He finished the season with two victories, nine top-five finishes and 18 top-10s. All-Time Victory List: Bowyer’s 10 career victories put him in a 59th-place tie on the all-time wins list with Donnie Allison and Sterling Marlin. SHR Sweep: SHR’s sweep of first, second and third place June 10, 2018 at Michigan was a first for the organization founded in 2009. It marked the first time a Cup Series team had swept the top three positions since September 2008, when Roush Fenway Racing swept the top three spots at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Crew chief Mike “Buga” Bugarewicz is in his fourth season as a Cup Series crew chief. He oversaw Stewart’s final campaign in 2016, and his pit strategy played a key role in Stewart’s victory at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in June 2016. Bugarewicz and Bowyer’s first season together in 2017 saw the duo post the 11th-best average finish of all full-time teams. In 2018, they earned their first victory together at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in March. Bugarewicz’s two-tire call minutes before a caution, combined with Bowyer’s aggressive driving at Michigan in June, earned the duo its second victory of the 2018 season. The Lehighton, Pennsylvania, native and Penn State University graduate served as the lead engineer on SHR’s No. 4 entry in 2014 and 2015. He was the only rookie crew chief to be part of the Cup Series playoffs in 2016. Clint Bowyer’s North Carolina farm has its share of cattle, goats, donkeys, dogs and chickens. But it’s most famous animal might be the family’s pot-bellied pig June. June – along with 12 other pigs – was unexpectedly born on Christmas Day 2017, but she was the only one of 13 piglets to survive due to cold weather. The family nursed June with a heating pad and bottle. June has since grown to adulthood and greets visitors when they arrive at the Bowyer farm, even taking occasional plunges in the swimming pool. Bowyer’s hometown of Emporia, Kansas, is about a 90-minute drive southwest of Kansas Speedway. Emporia, with a population of 25,000, is home to Emporia State University and Flint Hills Technical College. In 1953, Emporia was the site of the first Veterans Day observance in the United States. At the urging of local shoe cobbler Alvin J. King, U.S. Representative Edward Rees introduced legislation in the United States Congress to rename Armistice Day as Veterans Day. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Oct. 8, 1954. Bowyer’s Paternal Grandfather: Dale E. Bowyer was a first lieutenant in the United States Army. He won the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism while fighting in Germany during World War II. The Distinguished Service Cross, awarded for extraordinary heroism, is the second-highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Army. While leading his platoon under heavy fire in an attack near Sinz, Germany, on Jan. 25, 1945, Lt. Bowyer was severely wounded by an enemy mine. He refused evacuation even though both feet were shattered. He shouted instructions and encouragement where he lay. Inspired by his bravery, the men re-formed, moved clear of the minefield and continued the advance. Only then did Lt. Bowyer allow himself to be evacuated, crawling clear of the minefield to avoid injury to other people. “His devotion to duty and to his men, and his courage and fearless determination, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service,” read the commendation he received. Lt. Bowyer eventually lost a leg due to his injuries. After his career in the Army, he lived in Iola, Kansas, and worked in the dairy business. He passed away in June 1974. Bowyer never met his grandfather. Clint Bowyer put his trademark energy into a pregame tradition for his hometown NFL team on Dec. 13, banging the drum before the Kansas City Chiefs’ home game against the Baltimore Ravens. Bowyer wore a custom Chiefs jersey that sported his car number with Stewart-Haas Racing: 14. Bowyer attended the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City when the Chiefs played the New England Patriots.