NASCAR star a Jayhawk fan among diehard Tar Heels

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Apr 6, 2008

NASCAR star Clint Bowyer may live in the heart of Tar Heel country, but the Emporia native's heart has been with the Kansas Jayhawks throughout their Final Four ride.

"Them 'Hawkers are doing the deal," bragged Bowyer earlier this week in a phone interview from Welcome, N.C., where his Richard Childress Racing team is based. "The football team was very good this year and certainly the basketball team has been great. That's awesome."

As fate would have it Bowyer and his NASCAR counterparts are in Texas this weekend, competing at Texas Motor Speedway outside of Fort Worth, about four and a half hours from San Antonio and the Final Four.

Bowyer, who finished third in the Nationwide Series event Saturday and runs the Sprint Cup event today, tried in vain to make arrangements to be in San Antonio for KU's games.

"I'm not going to be able to go; I've got appearances and stuff," Bowyer said. "We were talking about it, but I'm not going to be able to make it work."

Despite the fact that their lives are consumed by racing and commitments to sponsors, Bowyer said many of the NASCAR regulars are basketball fans, particularly during the NCAA Tournament.

"Jeff Burton is an avid Duke fan, and there's a few guys who were basketball players - Elliott Sadler was a basketball player (at Virginia)," Bowyer said. "We're racers and we're busy doing this - there's so much going on all the time surrounding your job - but there are a lot of guys who are definitely locked into what's going on and we have the pools and stuff like that going.

"It's exciting for everybody across the country; it's a big deal. For KU, that's a big accomplishment to get to the Final Four."

Bowyer was listening to the radio broadcast when Kansas clinched its Final Four spot last Sunday.

"After Davidson (located in Davidson, N.C.) won the (Elite Eight) game I was like, 'We've got them, we've got them,' but boy that was a nail-biter," Bowyer said.

"We were on the way home from the track up there at Martinsville (Va.) and were listening to it on the radio. We couldn't find a bar to pull in to watch it. I was like, 'Ah, hurry up (and get home).' "

Like every other KU fan, Bowyer sweated out the final seconds of the game as the Jayhawks held on to win by two points.

"I'm happy for them and obviously proud to have Kansas there," he said. "It's so cool."

Rick Peterson can be reached at (785) 295-1129

or rick.peterson@cjonline.com.