Tiny, quiet and friendly Emporia, Kan., is rich with history, real history. On November 11th, 1953 the citizens of the town staged a Veterans Day observance instead of the traditional Armistice Day salute. (Armistice Day was a tribute to those that served in World War I. The Germans signed the surrender papers at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month, ending the War.) Congressman Ed Rees, of Emporia, was very impressed with the idea, and introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to change the name of the holiday to Veterans Day.

According to what I've read, Congressman Rees fueled a letter writing campaign (remember when people use to write letters!) and every state governor supported the move. The name was changed by an act of Congress on May 24th, 1954 and on June 1, 1954 the change was enacted and Armistice Day (which means "truce") became Veterans Day to honor those that served our country.

• NASCAR on TNT

Thank you, Emporia.

This year Emporia is celebrating its 150th anniversary as a city. There are all kinds of things you can do. There is Poetry on the Porch, not just any porch, mind you, the porch of famed publisher William Allen White. He was a native of Emporia, you know.

Next month at the anniversary luncheon, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin bread are on the menu. That's because it's October.

And on Sunday afternoons you can sit down with some of the locals, turn on the television and watch another famous Emporia native chase the Nextel Cup championship. That driver would be Clint Bowyer.

This past July the city honored Bowyer. July 7th was Clint Bowyer Day in Emporia. That would have been 07-07-07. Get it?

The proclamation uses the word "whereas" a lot but reads in part:

WHEREAS Clint has the support and admiration of the Emporia community for his achievements as a nationally known racecar driver.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Julie Johnson, Mayor of the City of Emporia, do hereby proclaim July 7, 2007 as "CLINT BOWYER DAY" in recognition of his success as a NASCAR driver in the Jack Daniel's No. 07 racecar.

Nice. I have never been there, but Emporia seems to have a small town feel to it. I found the telephone for the mayor on the city website, her HOME phone number. She answered her own phone. Nice.

"Yes we all know who Clint is and know what he has accomplished," said Mayor Johnson, who confessed she is not a big sports fan, but knows how successful Bowyer has been. "There are a lot of people in town watching him and rooting for him. We think it's wonderful what he has done. We are very proud of him. He has been a great ambassador for the city."

During a break in testing at Talladega on Monday, I asked Bowyer what is the biggest thing in Emporia. That got a good laugh.

"I guess it's the university," said Bowyer. That would be Emporia State University, home of the Hornets, a 17-7 winner over Oklahoma Central on Saturday. But Clint knows the history of his hometown. He told me about Veterans Day, and William Allen White and "a lot of neat things" that are there.

It's not hard to get a laugh out of Bowyer. Like Emporia, he is quiet, until you get to know him. He has a terrific sense of humor and likes to "have a good time."

Chasing momentum

For guys like Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, Richmond didn't end the way they hoped and now they are searching for some momentum heading to Loudon.

• Complete story, click here

"He's a hell of a lot of fun to be around," said Jeff Burton, a Bowyer teammate at Richard Childress Racing. "He keeps things light around the shop. He keeps things light at the racetrack, even when things aren't going well. He brings a lot of youthful enthusiasm. He's really good for our team."

This year things have been good for Clint and his team. He made the Chase. Sure he's 12th, but was ninth in points heading into Richmond. The "seeding" process placed him in that 12th spot, but he is just 60 points behind Jimmie Johnson heading to New Hampshire. And we all know that 12th is a whole lot better than 13th.

Oh, one more thing, he has yet to win in the Nextel Cup Series. And, yes, he knows that, and knows that his first career win could come in the Chase.

"That would mean so much," Bowyer said. "Not just to me, but to everybody at Richard Childress Racing and this Jack Daniel's team. I'm a racer. I grew up racing. I won a lot of races, that's how I got here, and I know we can win here. It's frustrating; it [not winning] beats me down. Winning would bring some fresh air to the team, it would give us a lot of momentum and that's important, too. Everyone here would love a win, they've earned it."

The report card on Bowyer's sophomore season shows high marks for improvement but still lacks the all-important "A" for winning. He has shown he can put himself in position, fourth at Sonoma, third at Bristol; he has 12 top-10s in 2007. Four times this season he has posted back-to-back top-10 finishes, but he has not managed three in a row, and the third at Bristol is his only top-10 in the last five races. Bowyer knows the numbers.

"First of all, the season has been successful; we have no reason to frown," Bowyer said. "No, we haven't got a win yet but we've been in several situations where we could have won and I screwed up. I'm still learning and there's lots of room to improve but the big thing is we keep getting better.

"Being there at the end of the race is the key. Last year we had races where we showed the speed and were in position to win the race but I made a mistake, I crashed the car. One of the biggest things I've learned is that if you have a seventh-place car don't wreck it trying to win. Take seventh and come back next week and try to win."

As a freshman, Bowyer's season was a test of faith and fabricators. Still the overall numbers weren't bad. He finished more than 96 percent of all the laps, led a few times, and had four top-fives and 11 top-10s. He finished the season with a 10th-place run at Homestead but had just two top-20 finishes in the final seven races.

"You race with these guys every week and you learn from them," he said. "You learn from your mistakes. Fortunately everyone at Richard Childress Racing and the guys on the Jack Daniel's team were patient enough with me that we could get through the season. Last year Richard always said to me, 'You should be making mistakes, that's what this year is all about.' Now next year, I really want you to be there."

Well, if "there" is the Chase, Bowyer is there, thanks to his teammates and a talented crew chief in unsung Gil Martin.

"Gil is a real veteran," Bowyer said. "He has been as patient as anyone. Now that we're where we are it's up to Gil and I to get everyone to the next level. We've got a great team and I have great teammates in Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton. There is a lot of teamwork and really that is important. I continue to learn. There is a huge learning curve out here. It's a big jump coming from winning races in the Midwest to trying to win races in NASCAR's top series."

"Clint's done a great job. Clint did a great job last year," Burton said. "The amount of racing experience that Clint has at this level is really limited. If you really look at the number of races that Clint ran in a Busch car before he went Cup racing, it's a very small number. And I thought he did a great job in the Busch car and I thought he stepped into the Cup car and has done a great job too.

"He has continued to get better. He has continued to understand the things that have stood in their way of being successful and his mind is in the right place. He understands this is hard. He understands it's a challenge."

But it's a challenge Bowyer has been looking forward to.

"If you asked me last year if I was going to make the Chase this year I would have said I could make the Chase, absolutely," Bowyer said. "We have the right guys, I am with the right organization, we have great equipment, and that's what it takes."

But there is one thing Bowyer has to overcome at RCR, the stigma that his team is the "third" team. Very few drivers have been on the "third" team in any organization and found consistent success. Bowyer wants to prove that at Childress the odds are even.

"Last year I really think we were the third team. I was a rookie. We needed to learn, to progress. Through last year and early this year, I think we grew out of that. If you look at things over the last several weeks we've been running equally well [with the No. 31 and No. 29 cars]."

But late last season, with Harvick and Burton in the Chase, and Bowyer on the outside, Clint admits there was uneasiness, an uncomfortable feeling that he carried into the off-season.

"I watched Harvick and Burton in the Chase and running up front while I was stuck back around 15th. In that type of situation you have to start looking at yourself. You have to have some self-doubt. We're in the same equipment only they're running up front and I'm not. You start thinking you're dropping the ball. If you're struggling and not running where you want to be running, then you look at them and you look around, they're in the top-five, I'm 17th, you start to question yourself. But we have picked up considerably from last year. We have picked up the pace. I believe we're equal with them week in and week out."

"It won't surprise me for him to have more success than any of us," Burton said. "Not only in the future but currently. He and Gil do a great job together. Clint's up on it and we're going to have to deal with Clint for a long time and that's a good thing."

Bowyer likes to talk about being patient, and how hard that is for a driver that wants to win. Now he is still looking for that first win, while racing for the championship, as one of just 12 drivers in the Chase.

"Patience," Bowyer said. "Jeff Burton has been talking to me about the Chase. Stay calm. But it's hard to stay cool and collected when there is all that pressure. But that's what I've got to do."

Bowyer knew he was locked into the Chase coming to get the green flag at the start of the race in Richmond. But it took a calm and familiar voice to bring it all home to him.

"Richard [Childress, car owner] got on the radio coming to the green to congratulate me and that really meant a lot. It was a cool feeling to have somebody that important say that to me. Dale Jarrett came over to me before the race. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to stop or go out of his way to say something to me but he did. He told me he thought I could win the championship. When someone like that says that to you it is really special."

I could hear the goose bumps in Bowyer's voice. He was reliving the moment, and the meaning.

Bowyer doesn't have any special rah-rah speech planned for the Jack Daniel's crew on Sunday. He knows what he'll say, and he knows how important the next 10 weeks will be.

"I usually get on the radio before the green and tell the guys to make sure everybody hits their marks, gives 100 percent -- that completes the package. There is so much work in just getting here. But this is a business, everybody has a job to do and everybody has to do their job."

There's another guy from Emporia, Kan., that knew a little about that. William Allen White, the University of Kansas Journalism School is named for him. Remember the Poetry of the Porch? William Allen White was born in Emporia on February 10th, 1868. He is a man who accomplished so much. At the age of 27 he borrowed $3000 and bought the hometown Emporia Gazette newspaper. His writing drew national attention; he became friends with President Theodore Roosevelt. President Franklin Roosevelt once sent him a telegram informing him he had followed White's advice on a Presidential appointment. President Herbert Hoover once had dinner at the White's house.

In the early 1920's, William Allen White was arrested in a dispute over free speech. Something about a new law that had been passed with the help of the Governor who just happened to be a rival publisher. In July of 1922, Allen wrote about the incident in an editorial titled To an Anxious Friend. The piece won him the Pulitzer Prize. His autobiography was published following his death. That, too, won him a Pulitzer.

Why all this about William Allen White from Emporia? Here is what Life magazine wrote about him:

"He is the small-town boy who made good at home. To the small-town man who envies the glamour of the city, he is living assurance that small-town life may be preferable. To the city man who looks back with nostalgia on a small-town youth, he is a living symbol of small-town simplicity and kindliness and common sense."

Sound like anyone you know from Emporia?

Clint Bowyer is the small town man racing in a big city world. He knows the goals. He also knows that he could win the championship without winning a race, but that is not how he has it planned.

"I certainly don't want to do it that way. We want to win. The championship is big picture stuff and so much has to go right to win it. But I have dreamed of winning in NASCAR's premier division. I want to be known as a winner."

Whereas in Emporia, Kan., he already is; just call the Mayor.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer