Clint Bowyer will not drive a third car for Richard Petty Motorsports next season. According to Lee Spencer of Foxsports.com, co-owner Andrew Murstein said the team was no longer courting the 32 year old driver. This comes after his current car owner, Richard Childress, said that the door was just about closed on him returning to RCR for 2012.
While Joe Gibbs said that Bowyer would be welcomed over at his race team he also said that the current sponsorship availablities made things a “non issue”. The Roush Fenway rumors have also seemed to simmer down.
Spencer says one team that is known to still have interest in Bowyer is Michael Waltrip Racing. Bowyer would presumably drive a third car along the likes of David Reutimann and Martin Truex.
While Carl Edwards seemed hot to touch on talks for 2012, it’s amazing how quickly Bowyer’s name has cooled since his failed bid to make the Chase.
Bowyer is in his sixth full season at RCR. He made the chase in three of his first five seasons. In 207 career starts he has 4 wins and 88 top-10 finishes.
Clint Bowyer will not fit in at MWR. He’s almost as surly as Tony Stewart, not great with sponsors, and even 5 hr. energy will want someone to represent them well. I know Steven Wallace didn’t set the bar very high but Bowyer can’t really bring himself to get excited about much of anything.
What bugs me even more is knowing that Bowyer has publicly said that Michael Waltrip was the worst driver in Nascar and when asked if he said those comments in the heat of the moment and given the chance to back down from them, he chose to repeat himself and to me, that should keep the welcome mat away from him.
Hope MW and Rob Kauffman come to their senses soon.
Clint will be an outstanding addition to MWR, IMO. Clint and Truex’s driving style seem to be pretty much the same, and what you can say about Clint is he is consistent in his runs. He has been in the sport what 6 and made the chase in half of them? His addition will do what Mikey has wanted from teh beginning and that is have 3 teams capabile of winning and bringing him a champinship. This is an outstanding move on Clint and Michael’s part.
As for the worse driver statement. Mikey would chuckle and tell you, he has probably said that about several drivers including some past champions.