With the ongoing baby boom in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, it has become commonplace for drivers to have backups on standby so they can be on hand for the birth of a baby.
Clint Bowyer announced this week that he and his wife, Lorra, are expecting a baby around the end of September. Like his peers before him, Bowyer wants to be present for the birth of his child, even if it means missing part of a race weekend or even a race.
“I’ve watched all my peers go through this, and to be honest with you, it always seems to go smooth sailing,” he said on a NASCAR teleconference. “But things never seem to go smooth sailing and according to plan for me, so who knows. We’ll just have to figure it out when we get there. We’re all racers. We’re also family people.”
Bowyer, from Emporia, Kan., is set to make his 300th career Cup start Saturday night at his home track, Kansas Speedway, and he said reaching that milestone means a lot to him. And it comes in a week in which he announced a contract extension with his sponsor, 5-Hour Energy, and his team, Michael Waltrip Racing.
“It really doesn’t register until you get back to thinking about how it all began and what it really means,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of this sport for 300 races.”
Weather affects: With Iowa Speedway set to host NASCAR's Nationwide Series next week, track and NASCAR officials decided to hold a one-day test Tuesday to be sure the track was in suitable condition for racing after the surface took a hard beating from Old Man Winter.
“As Iowans know, we experienced an unusually cold winter this year,” Iowa Speedway president Jimmy Small said in a track release. “Some areas on the race track underwent repair, and as a result we worked with NASCAR to conduct this one-day test — what we like to call our own version of spring training — to be sure the track is ready and teams are prepared so we can put on an exciting show for our fans during ‘Wide-Opening Weekend.’”
The test allayed any concerns on NASCAR’s part, according to Nationwide Series director Wayne Auton.
“We are delighted … with this test,” he said. “We had some major concerns coming in because the winter was so rough. All the drivers think this is going to be a great race next week.”
Intro to Nationwide: John Wes Townley, who is competing full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the ARCA series, has added a slate of Nationwide Series races to his already busy schedule.
And he’s running the Nationwide races for the newly formed Athenian Motorsports team owned by his family. He finished 13th at Talladega last week in the team’s debut.
“Thirteenth is great for any Nationwide team just starting out for its first time, I think,” Townley said. “We wanted to just kind of get out there and earn some respect as a team, and I think we did that.”
Townley, who finished second to Tom Hessert in the ARCA race at Talladega, plans to run 12 more Nationwide races this season.
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