DOVER, Del. — In just his second race since his retirement from the NASCAR Cup Series in 2020, Clint Bowyer had an eventful day, starting 22nd and finishing 29th after a right rear issue took him out of the race on lap 181. Bowyer’s only other race was also in the Craftsman Truck Series when he finished 17th at Nashville Superspeedway in June of 2024 in Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet.
Tomorrow, Bowyer will switch his race suit for a dress suit (and tie) and resume duties in the booth alongside colleagues Mike Joy and Kevin Harvick, but there was no doubt the veteran wheelman enjoyed the chance to get back behind the wheel in the No. 25 Kaulig Racing RAM Free Agent truck.
“I had a lot of fun, you know, maybe it will happen again, and maybe it won’t,” said Bowyer to Frontstretch on pit road post race. “There were several reasons why I wanted to do this. I was eager to be a part of this, as this kind of completes the gamut for me. This is the only manufacturer I hadn’t raced for and to be able to do that, it was was cool to check that off, but being a RAM dealer and all that goes with that, being a part of the dealer network, that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to be a part of it as well.”
Bowyer was also honest in his assessment of the Truck Series package and how it races and was quick to explain how different his truck felt when compared to what he had raced previously.
“The trucks are just so much different now from when I raced them,” Bowyer continued. “They don’t have any horsepower. It’s…hard to find how to pass, you know, that’s, that’s the biggest thing, and I knew on my fifth lap on the track that that was going to be the challenge. You’re running around there all but wide open. You know, there’s just no throttle response with them, and that’s the challenge within itself.”
At this point in the interview, Bowyer paused momentarily as he moved us back to give Kyle Busch free and clear access into Victory Lane. He then switched seamlessly into broadcaster mode as he assessed the win of a driver he raced against for many years.
“Oh but you know that’s good for NASCAR. Seeing [Busch] in Victory Lane and, and, gaining some confidence here he’s starting to get the ball rolling a little bit on the Cup side which we all know is important.”
While his broadcast future is clear, the question turns to whether or not Bowyer will race again – potentially at his home town track, Kansas Speedway in late September.
“I was good with [retirement] when I walked away, but, you know, when I was blessed with an opportunity to work for FOX and to be able to stay a part of this sport that I love and, and, you know, pull the rope in that direction for NASCAR and FOX. I was excited and eager to do that,” Bowyer said. “I was ready for a change, to be honest with you, but I still love to compete, you know, and, and that’s the hardest thing about this. I’ve said ever since I’ve done an interview that racing’s not fun, winning’s fun, and racing is a hell of a lot of work, but that’s why we do it because we love to win….. [And on Kansas] You know, I don’t know, just stepping in and doing it and being a part of it at the end of the day, if you can be an asset and still be competitive, that’s, that’s what answers those questions and really honestly I’m not the one that answers that if they, they need me or you know I can help them in any way with these Rams moving forward, you know, who knows, might see me again.”
And while it remains to be seen whether he will return behind the wheel, we’ll certainly see him again on our television screens starting tomorrow.
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Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.