Clint Bowyer

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and Emporia native Clint Bowyer took a small vacation from his schedule to visit Lawrence and the University of Kansas, Tuesday. Bowyer visited with football coach Turner Gill and exchanged helmets with the rookie coach, followed by a look around the football field and Allen Fieldhouse. "Everybody knows I'm a big KU fan and to be able to come here and meet Turner and see the football side of it and the basketball side of it is a lot of fun," Bowyer said, who is 12th in the standings for the Chase Cup, NASCAR's version of the playoffs.

Clint Bowyer has stormed out of the gate in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship by snapping an 88-race drought and winning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Bowyer had the most dominant car Sunday but lost the lead to Tony Stewart on a restart during a flurry of cautions late in the race. Bowyer couldn't catch the two-time champion with speed, but pounced when Stewart ran out of gas with a lap to go. Bowyer was nursing his own fuel tank to the finish line, and barely held off Denny Hamlin for the victory.

It's a journey that started when Clint Bowyer was just a kid, racing motocross in dirt tracks in Kansas and these days has him racing four wheels on America's biggest racing stage, NASCAR. “To look back and see how it all unfolded it's really unbelievable,” Bowyer says. Unbelievable because as a kid growing up, Bowyer was just your average kid, but with a love of racing that was pretty hard to ignore. “You don't see a lot of kids that are focused on doing a singular thing like that," says Steve Turner who taught Clint Bowyer American History at Emporia High School.

Yes, Clint Bowyer is from Kansas. And yes he is one of the friendliest drivers in the garage area. But if you think this a homer pick, think again. Other than Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin, you could argue that Clint Bowyer was the hottest driver in the Chase last season. He won two races and if it wasn't for a penalty after his first win in New Hampshire, who knows what this team could have done. Clint has always shown an amazing amount of poise and consistency, probably a result of being teammate of Jeff Burton, and a lot of competitive spirit, something more like his teammate Kevin Harvick.

Clint Bowyer finally won a NASCAR race in his home state, dominating throughout Saturday's trucks race to snap Kyle Busch's three-race winning streak. Bowyer, who grew up 90 miles away in Emporia, started second on Saturday and quickly took control of the 167-lap, 250-mile race on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. "(I'm) so happy to finally be in victory lane here," Bowyer said following the race. "So proud of this speedway and what it's become. I've always dreamed of racing here, let alone being aboe to win here is just a dream come true.

Clint Bowyer spent some time Wednesday morning chatting live with fans here at www.kwch.com.  You can see the questions and answers in the window below. Inside the walls of Michael Waltrip Racing in Cornelius, North Carolina is where the Clint Bowyer's familiar yellow and black car is prepped each week for the race. But a closer look revels that not much is familiar about the car, the paint scheme or the shop Bowyer now calls home. Near the end of last season, the Emporia native made the decision to leave Richard Childress Racing, and start a new journey driving for Waltrip.

In 2008, Clint Bowyer called Michael Waltrip the "worst driver in NASCAR period. " Next season, Bowyer will call Waltrip boss. On Friday the two put weeks of speculation to bed, making the official announcement at the Kansas Speedway, that Bowyer will be moving to Michael Waltrip Racing. "You know you never know when you are going to have to eat those words, and I'd say today's the day," Bowyer joked at Friday's announcement. "But he promised me he would be the best owner ever. " The Emporia native has signed a three year deal with MWR beginning with the 2012 season.

NASCAR driver and Kansas native Clint Bowyer will return to Hays to race again this summer. The Rolling Plains Speedway announced via its Facebook page on Tuesday that Bowyer has signed on to race at its Mod Mania event on July 31st. The Emporia native made his first trip to the RPM speedway for the same event last year. He was joined in Hays by fellow Sprint Cup series driver Kenny Schrader. Bowyer cut his teeth racing on dirt track in Kansas, but had never raced Hays before last season.

As his days at Richard Childress Racing wind to a close, Kansas native Clint Bowyer won for the second straight fall at Talladega. It's Childress' 100th win in NASCAR and comes as Bowyer will leave RCR at the end of the season for Michael Waltrip racing. "It means a lot for me to get my team back to victory lane before we cap this thing off," said Bowyer. "I wanted to stay up front. On the restart we got bunched up. I was really worried about the 14 car and the Red Bull cars were hooked up. I didn't think it would end up like that.

Last week we documented just how good Clint Bowyer is on the short tracks, and his second place finish at Richmond just drives home the point. And yet, possibly his best track on the circuit is at the other end of the spectrum. This week we head to the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway. The anti "short track" and Bowyer is nails on the series biggest track. He had two Alabama wins, four top fives and seven top tens in 15 races. "I'm looking forward to it," said Bowyer. "We've been on a roll here recently with our race team and we're hoping to get through Talladega here with a good finish - if not a win - and keep digging.” But Bowyer warns much like Forest Gump's chocolate, you never know what you are going to get at 'dega.

Matt Kenseth took the pole Sunday at one of his favorite places after setting a track qualifying record of 191.864 mph at Kansas Speedway. Kenseth won the fall race at Kansas last season, and hasn't finished outside the top 10 since having engine trouble in the 2009 race. He has finished in the top five at Kansas five times. Carl Edwards will start on the front row for the first time at Kansas after qualifying second with a lap of 191.748. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. qualified third.

Nearly every Kansas race fan from Kansas City to Weskan was hoping that Clint Bowyers move from Richard Childress Racing to Michael Waltrip Racing would work out for the best. Most of us feared it wouldn't. Good thing we were wrong. Truth be told, Bowyer was pretty unsure about the move himself. But he was a man with out a ride and MWR was waiting with open arms. Good thing for Bowyer, he road that chip on his shoulder all the way to a second place finish in the points in 2012. That is the good news and the bad news for the 15 team.