A rapid rise from Kansas dirt tracks to Victory Lane (cont'd)

He didn't. Dillon preached calm and focus, telling the 28-year-old over and over how good his car was, advising him not to try and pass lapped cars at the very end. "You're driving away, buddy," came the reassuring twang over the radio. "You're driving away." Afterward, the spotter rushed down from atop the press box to join the black-clad No. 07 team in a Budweiser-spewing celebration.

Lap-by-Lap

Clint Bowyer started from the pole at NHIS, relinquished the lead at only brief intervals and cruised to his first Nextel Cup victory in the Sylvania 300.

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"As he matures, he'll get better at it," a beer-soaked Dillon, RCR's general manager and a former driver himself, said later. "He's already matured so much this season. He's a great racecar driver. I'm telling you, watch out. If he gets some confidence in him, he's going to be tough. He's been fast since Day 1. He's going to be a lot different, I tell you, after this. He knows now he can do it. He just wants to go. We have to slow him down a lot."

Childress missed the celebration. The team owner was off in Mongolia, stalking big game. Dillon tried to call his boss and father-in-law from Victory Lane, but on the other side of the world it was 5:30 a.m. and no one answered the satellite phone. But many others -- Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kenny Wallace, Tony Stewart, even NASCAR president Mike Helton -- walked over to congratulate the circuit's newest first-time winner.

"The coolest thing about your first win is, from today until next Sunday, he's the man," said four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who pulled up alongside Bowyer's car after the race to express a job well done. "He's going to be on all the channels, he's going to see his face and name up there on ESPN and every other racing show. If he reads the papers, he's going to see it there. But more importantly, when he comes to the racetrack, people are going to look and talk to him a little bit differently."

With good reason. At long last, he's a race winner. Bowyer left New Hampshire fourth in championship points, just 15 behind co-leaders Johnson and Gordon, his presence as a title contender validated in a single afternoon. This, the same kid who once raced as a hobby, who got a street-stock sponsor because the opening of the big speedway in Kansas led to more media exposure for his local track, whose success is an inspiration for any other young driver trying to make it.

"He wants to win in the worst way," said RCR teammate Jeff Burton, who finished 18th Sunday. "I think he does a very nice job of putting all this into perspective. He's a very nice guy with a tremendous amount of talent. Clint Bowyer is the future of our sport. I believe that wholeheartedly."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.