Clint Bowyer’s Move To Fox Sports Next Season Had Nothing To Do With Lack Of NASCAR Sponsorship

To say that Clint Bowyer is the “odd man out” of anything is putting it mildly. Odd, in a good way of course, as the Kansas native is one of the most colorful personalities in NASCAR and always entertaining.

Bowyer announced last week that he will step out of the No. 14 Ford at Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the year. Odd, considering that when he signed a one-year extension on his contract with the team late last season, he indicated he wanted to return to the team in 2021, and in fact said that he wanted to remain there until his retirement. Something he reiterated as recently as this July.

So, what changed?

After making the announcement that he will move to the broadcast booth with Fox Sports next season, Bowyer met with the media and said he was working on sponsors for next season.

“Yes. Were we working on what’s next as far as being in a race car? Absolutely,” Bowyer said. “Always working with partners. Always trying to understand, trying to help them make an impact in this sport, not only for the racing side of it, but for their business as well. That included working with Rusty from Rush and DeKalb and all of our partners, Peak, everybody it would have took to keep me in that race car.”

Suddenly however, everything changed.

“Yeah, it’s 2020, right? It is what it is,” Bowyer said. “Is it the perfect time to do all of this? I don’t think 2020 is the perfect time for anything. We all wish it was just behind us already, but timing is something. This opportunity came up. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity to stay a part of this sport for many years to come, and that’s the coolest thing about it. Was I getting close to being ready to get out of the car and start thinking about it anyways? Yes. Was there a lot of things that happened this year in the schedule and things like that, where I was away from my family doing this on my own that kind of made that decision a little easier yet? Yes. There were a lot of those things, but the fans, the event of a race weekend is something that you just can’t do without.”

While there may be talk of sponsorship troubles for many teams in NASCAR, and all professional sports for that matter, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Bowyer. For Bowyer, his experience in the Fox booth earlier this season, when most of the world was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Fox broadcast the hastily put together iRacing Series that had drivers racing from their homes via simulators and invited Bowyer to join the coverage, began to change his mind about his future.

“When Fox, and let’s go back to the pandemic, there are always opportunities and crazy things and it’s usually those wild and crazy things in life that open that opportunity,” he said. “This pandemic led to that opportunity to get in the studio with Jeff and Mike and have a ton of fun doing those iRacing races that really kind of kept us on the map with our sport and kept our sponsors propped up, kept the business moving, kept it going around in circles. That was a ton of fun for me and it opened my eyes up in a big way and it was just something that nobody expected that opened the door for this opportunity we took. “

He added that the change came a week before his announcement. But he said:

“You don’t make that decision. They make that decision. There’s not a racer out there, you’ve got a lot of friends and things like that that if they could have stayed in the sport and done something that not be in the seat in a weekly basis that they would have taken that. It was TV gave me that offer and that opportunity. They’re the ones that made that decision, not me. The only thing I had to do is be smart enough to realize the opportunity that was in front of me and to capitalize on it. That’s what we did.”

Fans will get much more of this entertaining personality next season as Bowyer will join the broadcast booth alongside Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon. Bowyer will replace former analyst and retired driver Darrell Waltrip, famous for his “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity” catchphrase.

Waltrip was perhaps one of earliest, and best-known, of the colorful personalities in NASCAR during his time racing at NASCAR’s Cup level. Waltrip raced a Cup car from 1972 to 2000 amassing 84 wins in 809 starts and earning three Cup titles. Early in his career Waltrip gained the nickname “Jaws” not only for his aggressive style of racing on the track, and his outspokenness off the track. He was perhaps the last driver of a generation of drivers who cared less about placating sponsors with their words and more about saying exactly what was on their mind, consequences be damned.

After Waltrip retired, drivers seemed to become little more than corporate spokespersons. Much to the disappointment of many fans.

Until Clint Bowyer came along. That’s not to say that Bowyer doesn’t care about his sponsors. He does of course, but Bowyer can spin a yarn or answer a question in a way that puts smiles on faces of fans, competitors, and sponsors.

It’s almost as though Fox, and NASCAR, will be getting “Jaws 2.0” next season. Though many fans hope it will come without the “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity” catchphrase.

As for Bowyer, he makes no apologies for changing his mind and hanging up his helmet, despite making the change seemingly overnight.

“I don’t regret anything,” Bowyer said. “I can promise you this I’ve probably had more fun than about anybody out there these last 16 years, probably too much fun sometimes, but would I take anything back or change anything? Absolutely not. I mean, we got close once — finished second and I think fifth — had good runs within the playoffs and things like that. Did I win as many races I would have liked? No, but I had wonderful opportunities to and raced for a lot of good organizations. I won races for all three manufacturers. That’s something that was super cool. I’ve done a lot. I’m proud of what I’ve done and I’m satisfied, for sure. There’s no question about it.”