It is a story not often seen in trendy 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 among the greatest 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 significant 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 file with a 12.965-second flyer in a Modified that has stood since 2016.
When Brown isn’t gathering trophies at Bowman Grey, he is within the store at Rick Ware Racing serving to with the meeting of the Cup Collection 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 needed to drive his No. 15 automotive in The Conflict. Fortunately, he was already working within the store.
The dream
Rick Ware, Tim Brown
Picture by: Rick Ware Racing
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 light. Simply earlier than profitable his fourth monitor title in 2002, he felt that his possibilities of ever making it to NASCAR had been all however over.
“As soon as I received to be like 30 years previous, I noticed that it was all youthful children that had been getting the alternatives with Cup groups,” Brown instructed 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 assist me racing in any respect. Simply needed to work arduous to make it to the race monitor.”
Few thought today would ever come. Brown was shocked to study that NASCAR was even contemplating returning to Bowman Grey. The final time Cup automobiles raced there, Brown was only a month previous. And regardless of the entire success he has loved in his profession, he was sure that the day he was in a position to 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
Picture by: Rick Ware Racing
However whereas a proud second for Brown, Cup drivers are already lamenting the truth that they will not be capable to lean on the Bowman Grey veteran for recommendation, as exemplified by a latest dialog he had with a driver in search of his experience. Brown humorously instructed him: “‘Nah, you are by yourself buddy. I am gonna attempt to beat you, not allow you 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 should be reasonable. 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 are able to go and simply be aggressive and make the race and have a superb present, I will be pleased with it.”
The items, components, and coronary heart of racing
There aren’t many drivers within the area lately that may really put collectively the automobiles they’re racing. This ‘rookie’ is aware of each the monitor and the automotive beneath him higher than virtually everybody else on the market.
“I want to suppose that me really 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 business, it is probably not a bonus. It is only a psychological factor for me…I feel it is fairly cool that I really get to assist construct the race automotive I am gonna drive.”
It’s one thing that units him other than the Cup regulars, and it’s a part of the explanation 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 lots of money) into constructing these racing machines. That gained’t be the case for the celebrities of NASCAR once they enter the ‘Madhouse’ in a couple of days.
“These guys are one of the best racers on the earth,” 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 while you tear $1,500 off my race automotive, I am fairly upset about it. I do not know if Cup drivers have that keenness like we have now on the native degree when it is your cash that you simply’re spending and never a wealthy crew proprietor. It is in all probability slightly 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 profitable in order that’s not gonna change something from behind the wheel,” he declared.
Rick Ware, Tim Brown
Picture by: Rick Ware Racing
Embracing the spirit of the ‘Madhouse’
The ‘Madhouse’s infamous status includes lots of drama with tempers usually overflowing, and Brown himself has been in the course of a couple of viral moments.
“When you race at that place for a couple of seasons, you are gonna be on one of many spotlight reels for positive,” 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 captivated 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 harm emotions is the norm at this extremely tight single-groove monitor. The one actual option to transfer ahead is to make use of the bumper, which is certain to spark battle.
Tim Brown
Picture by: Rick Ware Racing
Whereas the hype is actual, there are nonetheless detractors who do not perceive why NASCAR, which deserted the standard Daytona Conflict in favor of flashy markets like Los Angeles, are actually racing at Bowman Grey. However Brown thinks it’s an excellent determination.
“There’s going to be the naysayers who suppose that this race isn’t 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 working NASCAR-sanctioned race monitor in historical past. It was one of many very first ones. It is proper right here, 45 minutes from nearly all of the Cup outlets. 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, on your native race followers who come to the Stadium each Saturday night time to observe us race — to deliver the Cup automobiles again there may be completely superb. These folks could not purchase the tickets quick sufficient. “
Waiting for the race itself, the veteran doubts we’ll see Cups automobiles crack the 13-second bracket, and automobiles will probably clock in over a second per lap slower than his lap file. 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 slightly 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 previous guardrails gone and among the heritage that the Stadium had. A part of me is gloomy about that however I perceive it.
“I am not saying that it is going to be one of the best Cup race you’ve got ever seen, however it is going to be a extremely huge deal for the followers and racers. When you take a look at the historical past of the place — your Earnhardts and Pettys and Allisons — all of them raced there. You take it again to the place all of it got here from. How cool is that?”
Primarily based on the sold-out crowd, he is not the one one which feels that approach. 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 crew than most within the Cup Collection and has by no means gained, however whether or not that Ford Mustang rolls off the hauler quick or is tough to deal with, Brown guarantees one factor: “I am gonna give it a 110%, whichever approach it goes.”
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