Technically Clint Bowyer won the first-ever NASCAR Holeshot Challenge at Monster Energy Supercross, but winning the actual race wasn’t really the point. Well, it wasn’t supposed to be. This was supposed to be a cool crossover promotion between two sports that really could use each other right now. But Bowyer and fellow drivers Greg Biffle, Ty Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. decided to take this thing very seriously and try really hard…to the point where Bowyer was willing to crash to win!
Biffle, who ended up second, said: “I got a good jump out of the gate, but I had a tough time getting my boot under the shifter. Once I missed third (gear), I knew Clint was close, then I got out of the throttle because I could tell—you’re not going to be able to stop! Clint had the commitment to go wide open through there! I could have went further and stopped, still, but I didn’t know how much further I could go, so I weighed on the side of having a little margin. I could see Clint, I had him beat, and I was like “That’s probably good enough.” Then he goes by me with the handle grip just wound around! I’m like “Where he going?” There’s bleachers and a corner and grandstands!”
Bowyer’s checkers and wreckers turned raised eyebrows into full head nods. Racers are racers and they always race to win. NASCAR might be big, but it produces mixed reactions in the motocross world. Some feel that any extra respect or attention on supercross is a good thing (and if you want to call that selling out, that’s fine, but if you want more rides and more money for more riders, this is how the game needs to be played). Some don’t even want motocross and NASCAR in the same sentence. But when Bowyer went WFO to get the W, everyone got excited.
His crash got love on ESPN’s SportsCenter and the approximately 347,962 daily NASCAR pre-race/post-race/news shows, as well as all the drivers’ social media accounts, which have a far reach. Supercross didn’t get four riders in four cars racing down the front stretch at a NASCAR race, but it certainly got something. Bowyer’s clip is everywhere, and it will be referenced forever. There were a lot of influential people that came to the Georgia Dome only to watch the NASCAR Challenge, but ended up impressed with the entire show.
For two NBC producers I know, who were attending supercross live for the first time, were amazed. I had a good chat with some NASCAR beat reporters, and one told me that after looking around the Georgia Dome pits, it would seem to make more sense for more sponsors to spend money in supercross. Supercross pits are filled with kids and families. Supercross has the young demographic that NASCAR wants.
Because of that, NASCAR won, too. NASCAR’s audience is still much, much larger than dirt bike racing, but its audience is getting older. Supercross has the market for young folks, from flat-bill wearing Monster Energy sipping 19-year olds to five-year old kids who just want to have a dirt bike. Supercross fits so perfectly with small screens and small attention spans: 15-second Instagram clips, and 15-minute main events.
So NASCAR would like to get in front of some of those younger eyes and show that their stars are bad asses, too. Getting a few of them on dirt bikes, ones that actually ride and know what they’re doing, would be cool.
But the general idea didn’t come down from the NASCAR marketing offices in Daytona—it came from Andy “Rev Up” Bowyer, former columnist on this website, former Team Green rider, and now an employee of the supercross promoters at Feld Motor Sports. Clint Bowyer is Andy Bowyer’s brother, so Andy has a unique double-connection to each sport, and with NASCAR drivers and teams looking more closely at supercross than ever, and Fox Sports airing both sports, and NASCAR being in town for its own race in Atlanta….well, Andy started making calls.
Hard to believe that in a NASCAR world chock full with PR people, agents, marketing types and licensing agreements that a few one-on-one phone calls can make a difference, but Andy was determined.
He started by ringing his buddy Sean Kerlin, who builds interiors for Denny Hamlin’s #11 Joe Gibbs Racing car. Andy used to ride with Kerlin at Ty Dillon’s track in North Carolina. Dillon rides himself, so that made him a prime target, and Andy went after him. Stenhouse is already a super fan and also rides. A few weeks ago he went to the Glendale Supercross and hung out with Ryan Dungey for the day, striking up a bit of a relationship with Red Bull KTM, too. Stenhouse also has another relationship: he’s dating Danica Patrick.
Once Stenhouse committed to the race, Bowyer had the stones to then ask: “We would love to have Danica in the race because she’s a competitor just like everyone else. If not, though, would she like to hold the 30-second card?” Within minutes, Stenhouse had a yes from Danica.
Biffle was the one man Bowyer didn’t have a connection to (obviously, his brother Clint was in) but soon the buzz was going through the NASCAR garage courtesy of Kerlin and things were starting to roll. Luckily, Stenhouse and Biffle drive for Roush-Fenway Racing, and their contracts allow them to do such things. Dillon started to get some resistance leading up to the race, though, as the next day he would get a huge opportunity to fill in for the injured Tony Stewart. An injury to himself at this moment could be a career killer. Dillon wanted to do it, but his grandfather, famous team owner Richard Childress, wasn’t sure it was worth the risk.
Childress was the man who owned Dale Earnhardt’s famous #3 car. Bowyer pounced on that fact. “I called Ty and told him “Your grandfather knows more about motorsports marketing than anyone,” he said. “Your grandfather practically invented motorsports marketing.”
It took a huge push on Bowyer’s part, but the appeal of riding a bike at a supercross, and getting exposure to that audience, was too much for any of the drivers to pass up.
“Dillon told me it was a dream come true to be part of a supercross,” said Bowyer. “And last weekend he was racing in the Daytona 500!”
“I’ve been riding since I was five, and I have six bikes at home,” said Biffle. “I don’t get to ride as much as I like to ride, and that’s honestly why I did this. So I’d be able to go ride! They texted me and said, “Would you do a holeshot race at the supercross in Atlanta?” And I just wrote back yes and didn’t even think about it.”
The Bowyer brothers took the biggest risk, but history is written by the winners and Clint has zero regrets. “I’m sure the sponsors weren’t too happy about it, but that’s what moto is all about—going for it,” he said to Fox Sports’ Jenny Taft.
The hope is that this extra attention will convince a few other people to go for moto, too.
