Clint Bowyer looking for Richmond redemption following wedding

While some drivers relaxed over the Easter break, Clint Bowyer took a different approach and got married to longtime girlfriend Lorra.

“We went down to the Bahamas with just a little group of family and friends — some of my closest friends and some of hers,” Bowyer commented. “They knew we were there, just put it that way.  It was a lot of fun.  Train wreck is what it would kind of be considered too.  It was so funny though, Jay Frye crashed the wedding in his swim trunks and I thought that was the highlight of the night.  I thought that if I was him I would have definitely done that and probably that much more.  Him and Danielle (Frye) came in straight off the beach and I thought that was hilarious.”

Sitting in the media center at Richmond, Bowyer showed off his new wedding ring, commenting that “it’s heavy. It’s forever.”

Post wedding, Bowyer said that they had a nice honeymoon as they had a big bonfire at their house.

“I was burning some brush and I look over and I was like, ‘How’s your honeymoon honey?  Pretty good, huh?’  We had so much fun,” Bowyer commented.

Now Bowyer’s focus shifts to weekend as he heads to Richmond with a new sponsor on his Toyota – AAA. 

“It’s always awesome to have new sponsors in this sport, more importantly on the side of your race car,” Bowyer commented. “Really proud to have AAA on my car, it’s a good race track for us.  We’ve landed in victory lane here twice and I think we can do it again.  To get a new sponsor in victory lane is always a good thing.”

Richmond International Raceway is a track that Bowyer has had success on in the past with multiple wins and for that reason, Bowyer says that it’s a track that he’s excited to get to.

“Looking back over the years you always have a track that fits your driving style and you’re confidence level is more for some reason and this has always been the case for me,” he commented. “We’ve run well in the Nationwide Series here, always run well in the Cup Series and I’m always excited to get here.  This is a fun racing weekend.  The fan base is awesome.  Night races are always extra special.”

Though coming into this year, Bowyer comes in with a bit of controversy in the rear-view mirror as it was Bowyer’s spin in last year’s fall Richmond race that stirred the pot surrounding the Chase and ultimately got his then-teammate Martin Truex Jr. kicked out of the Chase.

“I’m looking forward to having another good run here and shaking that off from last year,” Bowyer commented. “It was a bad deal and I get it.  Like I said, this is one of my favorite race tracks.  People all across the country ask you where your favorite tracks are and this is first or second on my list.”

Bowyer feels that the storm he created last year has sort of blown off and he has his strong fan base behind him.

” Everybody knows me, I love to have fun in this sport, I appreciate the sport and try to give back every chance I get,” he commented. “The fan base, Twitter and things like that — I took a beating for awhile, but we weathered that storm, it’s behind us and it’s a lot of fun to interact with those fans whether it’s good or bad.  It’s all positive interaction as far as I’m concerned because they are talking about our sport.”

Beyond that controversy, Bowyer is coming off of a not-so-good weekend at Darlington two weeks ago that saw contact between him and Kurt Busch late in the race, resulting in Busch hitting the wall hard.

“It was just a bad deal,” Bowyer said. “You never want to wreck anybody.  It was quite clear that I got into the back of him and wrecked him.  You always feel bad when that happens.  It’s a different circumstance if you were having a skirmish with him and hatred or something and usually that’s pretty obvious to everybody.  You get down to the end of those things and they are green-white-checkered and there’s two tires, four tires — (Jeff) Gordon was on two and was protecting it pretty hard getting in and I kind of checked up and next thing you know I’m the guy that’s three-wide and I was like, ‘Oh no.’  Then I got a good run off the hill and obviously he (Kurt Busch) was out of room and trying to gather things up and doing the best he could for himself and we just got in the back of him.”

Bowyer says that he reached out and apologized, however has yet to hear something back from Busch.