A Bowman Grey legend’s dream is lastly realized as NASCAR Cup rookie

It is a story not often seen in fashionable NASCAR. One which feels prefer it was lifted from a Hollywood script or tag line. An older driver is given the possibility to race the automobiles he helps construct on the monitor the place he made his title, fulfilling a dream he thought was misplaced to time — and in opposition to a number of the largest stars in American motorsports.

This story begins with Bowman Grey — a quarter-mile asphalt oval that has been round longer than NASCAR itself. The historical past of this Winston-Salem, North Carolina monitor is illustrious, and 53-year-old Tim Brown has been a serious a part of it. With over 100 victories and 12 monitor championships, he’s the winningest driver ever on the notorious ‘Madhouse.’ He even owns the monitor document with a 12.965-second flyer in a Modified that has stood since 2016.

When Brown is just not gathering trophies at Bowman Grey, he is within the store at Rick Ware Racing serving to with the meeting of the Cup Sequence automobiles that race on the nationwide stage each weekend. As the top of inventory automotive racing introduced its intentions to return to Bowman Grey for the primary time in over half-a-century, it did not take Rick Ware lengthy to determine who he wished to drive his No. 15 automotive in The Conflict. Fortunately, he was already working within the store.

The dream

Brown earned his first monitor championship at Bowman Grey in 1996, repeating the feat in 1997 and 1998. Throughout that point, the dream of reaching the heights of inventory automotive racing remained forefront in his thoughts, however because the years handed, the dream pale. Simply earlier than successful his fourth monitor title in 2002, he felt that his probabilities of ever making it to NASCAR had been all however over.

“As soon as I obtained to be like 30 years outdated, I noticed that it was all youthful children that had been getting the alternatives with Cup groups,” Brown advised Motorsport.com. “And the racers with cash behind them from company sponsors or wealthy households had been getting rides and never folks like myself that come from the grassroots farming — (we) did not have some huge cash to help me racing in any respect. Simply needed to work laborious to make it to the race monitor.” 

Few thought this present day would ever come. Brown was shocked to be taught that NASCAR was even contemplating returning to Bowman Grey. The final time Cup automobiles raced there, Brown was only a month outdated. And regardless of the entire success he has loved in his profession, he was sure that the day he was capable of inform his son Cam, daughter Marley, and spouse Megan that he could be going Cup racing “was one of many proudest moments of my life.”

Tim Brown along with his household

Photograph by: Rick Ware Racing

However whereas a proud second for Brown, Cup drivers are already lamenting the truth that they will not be capable of lean on the Bowman Grey veteran for recommendation, as exemplified by a latest dialog he had with a driver searching for his experience. Brown humorously advised him: “‘Nah, you are by yourself buddy. I am gonna attempt to beat you, not make it easier to!’”

Regardless of his 1000’s of laps of expertise, Brown is maintaining his expectations grounded for the problem earlier than him. “I am a racer. I wish to go and win the race however I additionally must be real looking. Deep down inside as a racer, you wish to go and put it on them and win the factor however in all actuality, if we will go and simply be aggressive and make the race and have a great present, I will be pleased with it.”

The items, elements, and coronary heart of racing

There aren’t many drivers within the subject nowadays that may truly put collectively the automobiles they’re racing. This ‘rookie’ is aware of each the monitor and the automotive beneath him higher than nearly everybody else on the market.

“I wish to assume that me truly serving to construct the automotive and bolt it collectively and get to drive it on the chassis dyno and drive it across the car parking zone would assist, however man, these groups have such skilled mechanics and personnel engaged on these automobiles all through this trade, it is probably not a bonus. It is only a psychological factor for me…I feel it is fairly cool that I truly get to assist construct the race automotive I am gonna drive.”

It’s one thing that units him aside from the Cup regulars, and it’s a part of the rationale why weekend warriors at Bowman Grey get so pissed off when their automobiles get torn up.They put their coronary heart and soul (in addition to numerous money) into constructing these racing machines. That gained’t be the case for the celebs of NASCAR once they enter the ‘Madhouse’ in a couple of days.

“These guys are one of the best racers on the planet,” stated Brown. “They’re all getting paid some huge cash to do that. On the degree I race at weekly, we do not receives a commission to do that, so whenever you tear $1,500 off my race automotive, I am fairly upset about it. I do not know if Cup drivers have that zeal like we’ve on the native degree when it is your cash that you simply’re spending and never a wealthy workforce proprietor. It is in all probability just a little bit completely different.

“I receives a commission to work on race automobiles whether or not they’re torn up or wiping confetti off them from successful in order that’s not gonna change something from behind the wheel,” he declared.

Rick Ware, Tim Brown

Photograph by: Rick Ware Racing

Embracing the spirit of the ‘Madhouse’ 

The ‘Madhouse’s infamous popularity includes numerous drama with tempers typically overflowing, and Brown himself has been in the course of a couple of viral moments.

“For those who race at that place for a couple of seasons, you are gonna be on one of many spotlight reels for certain,” stated Brown. “I’ve raced there for 33 years, so I am not pleased with it, particularly now that I’ve two children who can get on YouTube and watch movies of father appearing like he should not … I’m a diehard racer (and) very obsessed with it. I can solely take a lot earlier than I flip out. Not pleased with it, however that is a part of racing at Bowman Grey.”

‘That is a part of racing at Bowman Grey.’ Fights, payback and damage emotions is the norm at this extremely tight single-groove monitor. The one actual technique to transfer ahead is to make use of the bumper, which is certain to spark battle. 

Tim Brown

Photograph by: Rick Ware Racing

Whereas the hype is actual, there are nonetheless detractors who do not perceive why NASCAR, which deserted the normal Daytona Conflict in favor of flashy markets like Los Angeles, at the moment are racing at Bowman Grey. However Brown thinks it’s a superb determination.

“There’s going to be the naysayers who assume that this race is just not gonna be good, however I one thousand p.c imagine that if you are going to race a 1/4-mile race monitor with a Cup automotive, it needs to be Bowman Grey Stadium. It’s the oldest operating NASCAR-sanctioned race monitor in historical past. It was one of many very first ones. It is proper right here, 45 minutes from the vast majority of the Cup retailers. I get the market facet of that, like (L.A.) is an enormous metropolis — you are going to draw that market and that crowd. However man, in your native race followers who come to the Stadium each Saturday evening to observe us race — to convey the Cup automobiles again there’s completely superb. These folks could not  purchase the tickets quick sufficient. “

Looking forward to the race itself, the veteran doubts we are going to see Cups automobiles crack the 13-second bracket, and automobiles will doubtless clock in over a second per lap slower than his lap document. However the return of NASCAR brings with it some upgrades and enhancements, which can change the best way the drivers assault the monitor.

“They’ve taken just a little little bit of the racing floor away from us with the safer partitions, which is ok as a result of it is the identical for everyone so we simply re-learn the groove,” defined Brown, who’s happy with the work put into the circuit. “Now there is part of me that hates to see the outdated guardrails gone and a number of the heritage that the Stadium had. A part of me is unhappy about that however I perceive it. 

“I am not saying that it will be one of the best Cup race you’ve got ever seen, however it will be a extremely massive deal for the followers and racers. For those who take a look at the historical past of the place — your Earnhardts and Pettys and Allisons — all of them raced there. You are taking it again to the place all of it got here from. How cool is that?”

Primarily based on the sold-out crowd, he isn’t the one one which feels that means. And he will not be the one native hero within the race both as Burt Myers has additionally entered the occasion, driving the No. 50 automotive. Rick Ware Racing is a smaller workforce than most within the Cup Sequence and has by no means gained, however whether or not that Ford Mustang rolls off the hauler quick or is troublesome to deal with, Brown guarantees one factor: “I am gonna give it a 110%, whichever means it goes.”