Countdown to Sonoma: Toyota/Save Mart defending champ Clint Bowyer pays area visit

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer made an appearance in Northern California on Monday, taking part in a race — this time with a shopping cart — and fan Q & A to kick off the countdown to the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway later this month.

Bowyer won the race at Sonoma last year, his first career road course victory.

NASCAR fan Dennis Kurrell, an Auburn resident, joined Bowyer in the timed “shopping cart race” at a Save Mart store in Sacramento. Kurrell said he has been attending NASCAR races at Sonoma since they began in 1989. “I’m part of a NASCAR family. Every year we camp and party and have fun, and just enjoy our time together.”

Kurrell said he was stunned when he found out about being invited to participate in Monday’s event. “I scared my cats. I was jumping up and down,” he said.

Bowyer and Kurrell pulled up to the front of Save Mart in style, with Bowyer driving the “Big Red” motorized shopping cart that did a parade lap around the track last year before the green flag dropped.

“A souped-up shopping cart is a must. That ought to be in every redneck’s garage,” Clint later said with a laugh. “That thing is fast!”

After winning the shopping cart race and handing the trophy to Kurrell, Bowyer answered questions about the NASCAR season, and in particular about the new qualifying format for NASCAR’s road courses.

“I thought it was something that needed to happen,” he said.

In the old style of qualifying at Sonoma, cars were pulled onto the track where the fans couldn’t see them, then just appeared and made their lap.

“It was kind of hard, as a race car driver, not doing this each and every week, pulling out of the back straightaway. You don’t get a full lap to get to speed,” Bowyer said. “That lap has to be your fastest of the weekend and you’re going to start in the back.”

“It’s more entertaining for the fans, too. They’re going to see more of us on the race track, which is what they come for.”

He was asked whether his dirt track experience helped at all with racing on a road course, though Sonoma is paved and has right turns. “A little bit, with throttle control,” he said.

“Tire management is such a big thing, especially like a track at Sonoma. You really have to take care of your tires and be easy on the throttle.”

Bowyer was also asked if he ever drove a Legends car, like the one driven by Benician Phil Joy. He said while he had tried one out in a parking lot years ago, he hadn’t raced in one.

“They’re really small, and extremely fast,” he said.

Bowyer will return to Sonoma Raceway with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series June 21-23.