 |
| Clint Bowyer is 18/1 to win at Las Vegas on Sunday. |
There’s another aspect of his life that might not be as well known but certainly evident after spending even a few minutes with Bowyer family at the track or on its 650-acre farm in Mocksville, North Carolina, where vintage cars, trucks, racecars, dogs, cows, eagles, pigs, donkeys and goats are intermixed. Yes, Bowyer is an animal lover.
“We’ve always had animals around ever since we were kids, so it’s something that’s always been part of me,” he said. “Heck, these days Lorra and I travel with two kids and two dogs each weekend to the racetrack. Between all the kids’ toys and the dogs, our motorhome looks like the Clampetts (of the television series Beverly Hillbillies) live there.”
He’ll get to combine that love of animals with his racing this weekend when he drives the One Cure Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. One Cure is a project led by the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University. The One Cure program is founded on the principle that cancer affects all creatures and that treatment breakthroughs come through collaboration between scientists and doctors working with people and animals.
This approach is known as comparative oncology and it is the guiding concept of One Cure and the Flint Animal Cancer Center at CSU. The center works to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in pets, and teams with the human medical field to translate research findings that will help people with cancer. The center, located in Colorado State’s James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital, sees more than 1,500 new animal cancer patients every year, with approximately 130 patients enrolling in carefully monitored clinical trials specific to their cancer type.
The canine and feline patients are helping pioneer cancer research, moving cutting-edge treatments out of the laboratory and into clinical practice, ultimately providing hope for the next generation of animal and human cancer patients.
“We lost a great guy on our dirt team to cancer earlier this month and there have been a few folks we’ve lost in NASCAR recently to cancer,” Bowyer said. “Cancer sucks. But I’ve learned about cancer through One Cure and there’s hope through studying animals. They told me one in three people, one in four dogs, and one in five cats will develop cancer in their lifetime and it’s a leading cause of death for all of us.”
Bowyer said there are few things in life more important than seeking a cure for cancer.
“Dogs are the best subjects to study cancer because they get cancer naturally, just like people,” he said. “Plus, they live in the same places, breathe the same air, drink the same water – even sometimes eat the same foods. I’ve learned through the One Cure folks that dogs share 85 percent of our genetic makeup. If you can cure cancer in a dog, then you have a good shot at doing the same things for humans.”
Bowyer hopes race fans will visit www.OneCure.com, where they can learn about the research and offer financial support. He hopes he can create even more attention for One Cure Sunday at the fast 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval. It marks his 15th start at Las Vegas, where he earned a second-place finish in 2009, plus three other top-10 finishes.
He’s riding momentum into Las Vegas after leading every practice session, qualifying third and finishing fifth at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend. That finish, combined with Bowyer’s 20th-place run in the season-opening Daytona 500, put him ninth-place in the standings after two races.
“It’s been a lot of fun to run so well early in the season,” he said. “Let’s keep it that way in Las Vegas.”
CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 One Cure Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing:
What were your thoughts on the new rules package at Atlanta?
“It’s still early. Trying to figure out the right scenario for this is going to be interesting. You have to remember, Atlanta is a one-off race. There is no track that we go to anymore that is as slick and is as hard on tires as Atlanta. It will be interesting to see what Las Vegas brings.”
Do you enjoy Las Vegas?
“Who wouldn’t? And I don’t just mean the track. There’s so much to do there. If you aren’t a gambler, there are good restaurants and good shows and concerts to go to. I think it’s a great place to catch a race if you are a fan.”
Bowyer owns career totals of 10 wins, two poles, 74 top-five finishes, 197 top-10s and 2,850 laps led in 471 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races. He also owns eight Xfinity Series victories.
His most recent Cup Series victory came at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn (June 10, 2018).
His most recent Cup Series pole came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon (Sept. 16, 2007).
Bowyer owns a top-five finish and four top-10s in 14 starts at Las Vegas. He’s led 17 laps and has finished on the lead lap in half his starts on the 1.5-mile oval. He also finished third in the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas on March 1, 2008.
In last Sunday’s race at Atlanta, Bowyer finished fifth after qualifying third and posting the fastest times in Friday and Saturday’s practice sessions. In the race, Bowyer remained in the top-10 throughout the 500 miles, narrowly avoiding disaster by pitting before a cut tire ended his race. The topfive, combined with a 20th-place finish in Daytona, moved him to ninth in the points.
Bowyer and the No. 14 team were part of a NASCAR test Jan. 31 to Feb. 1 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
At the September 2018 race in Las Vegas, Bowyer started 15th and finished 23rd on a day that saw nearly every playoff car encounter trouble. The No. 14 climbed as high as seventh with 50 laps remaining, but contact with another car and the wall with 10 laps remaining dropped him two laps behind the leader. Bowyer said: “I thought we were going to capitalize, but there at the end it all went bad.”
The 2019 season marks the 11th season of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). The Kannapolis, North Carolina-based team is co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas and has recorded 51 points-paying victories and 44 poles since its inception in 2009. It also owns four non-points victories in the Cup Series and three Xfinity Series victories. Stewart won the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series title, and Kevin Harvick gave SHR its second title in 2014. Then-SHR-driver Kurt Busch won the 2017 Daytona 500. Harvick won eight times in 2018, while Bowyer won twice and Aric Almirola and Busch once each. All four SHR drivers advanced to the Round of 8 of the Cup Series playoffs.
At Las Vegas, SHR owns three victories (Harvick 2018 and 2015 and Stewart 2012), six top-fives and 12 top-10s in 35 starts.
No comments:
Post a Comment