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Clint Bowyer wanted to wreck nearly everyone at NASCAR's Phoenix finale, here's why
By Gary Gastelu
Published November 13, 2020
Clint Bowyer just couldn’t do it.
The retiring NASCAR driver allegedly had a crazy idea to go out with a bang during the season finale at Phoenix Speedway. Several bangs, in fact.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Freddie Kraft, who worked as Bubba Wallace’s spotter this season, told the Door Bumper Clear podcast that he was at a dinner with Bowyer the night before the race where he said, “‘I think I’m just going to pull the pin tomorrow and just wreck everybody that I owe a wreck to. And as I wreck them, call it out, like ‘yea, that was ’08 Martinsville right there, bud, you’re welcome.’”
“What are they gonna do, wreck him back?” joked fellow guest T.J Majors.
Instead, Bowyer ran a clean race and finished in 14th place, fittingly matching the number of his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. He’ll now head to the Fox Sports broadcast booth next season, but he might not be completely out of the woods.
He will be co-hosting with Jeff Gordon and the two have a history.
Bowyer wrecked Gordon and Jimmie Johnson with an aggressive move while they were fighting for the lead near the end of the Martinsville spring race in 2012. Gordon decided to retaliate for the incident and others by intentionally taking Bowyer out of the second to last race of the season at Phoenix with just two laps to go, eliminating Bowyer from championship contention. The dust-up led to a brawl in the infield and a feud that lasted for years before they -- apparently -- mended fences.
Bowyer's and Gordon's crews came to blows following the Phoenix wreck. (Tyler Barrick/Getty Images)
In a promo for Bowyer’s new gig, Fox Sports had his young children interview him on a number of topics, during which his son Cash asked “do you think you and Jeff Gordon are going to wreck each other in the booth?”
“We just might,” Bowyer laughed.
“I think we’re gonna have a lot of fun, a lot of laughs and call a lot of good races. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Bowyer has yet to comment on Kraft's story.
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