A rapid rise from Kansas dirt tracks to Victory Lane

LOUDON, N.H. -- He thought the call was a prank. Clint Bowyer was working in the body shop of a Ford dealership in his native Emporia, Kan., when his cell phone rang and a woman on the other end asked if he would hold for Richard Childress. He had played plenty of jokes on other people, and figured it was his turn to be on the receiving end. He nearly hung up, but for some reason he stayed on the line, and soon the familiar voice came of the champion NASCAR team owner was asking him to fly to North Carolina the next day.

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That's how it began for Bowyer, the most unheralded competitor in Nextel Cup's championship Chase until Sunday, when he scored a coming-of-age victory at New Hampshire International Speedway that capped a dizzyingly short rise to the elite level of NASCAR. This is a kid who started out on motorcycles, who came up racing primarily on dirt, who moved to asphalt only a few years ago and got his big break because a car owner saw him on TV. So many stars had to align for Bowyer to reach Victory Lane on a bright, crisp, Sunday. All of them did.

"It's been pretty quick," said Bowyer, who earned his first Nextel Cup victory in dominant fashion, leading 222 of 300 laps. "It seems like it's been a long time. But you look back, me and the old man rode motorcycles the other day and we stopped and were talking and it's just amazing how short it's really been. Just three or four years ago we were back home slinging dirt and having fun and someday dreaming about this."

And now he's not only here, but a championship contender in just his second full year on the circuit, a mere five seasons removed from spinning his dirt car around his local track only a few minutes from Kansas Speedway. He is the walking, firesuit-clad embodiment of the American racing dream, an aspiring driver who sank his savings into an ARCA car he found in North Carolina, took it to Nashville in August of 2003, and finished second in his first start. Childress watched that day from his motor coach in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and soon afterward was on the telephone offering the young man a job.

Suddenly Bowyer was driving Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 car part time on the Busch circuit, with Kevin Harvick as a mentor. When Childress hired Bowyer the driver was a virtual unknown, an expatriate dirt-tracker with a heavy right foot and plenty of raw talent. Running only half the season, he won a pole and complied seven top-10 finishes. Harvick could see immediately that his new young teammate was the real deal.

"I was one that went to all the tests with him, and he would test the second half of the day when we would go do all those tests, so I kind of got to see it firsthand how he progressed," said Harvick, who finished 17th Sunday. "At a lot of the racetracks he's really good at now, he struggled with right off the bat. Once he figured it out he really, really came about, so he adds that young, jubilant person to our team and he's progressed really well. Last year to this year is a huge jump, so he's a great piece of our team."

At times, the youth and relative inexperience still show. Trying to pass Denny Hamlin for the lead last week at Richmond, Bowyer spun out and finished 12th. He carried that experience with him every lap Sunday at New Hampshire, even as it became obvious that no other car could beat him. High-strung and excitable over team radio, he complained to spotter Mike Dillon about the handling of his car. He complained about lapped traffic. He wondered if it was going to rain. He waited for the phantoms that had spun him out the week before to strike him once more.

"I didn't want to mess up again," he said.

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.