A rapid rise from Kansas dirt tracks to Victory Lane

LOUDON, N.H. -- He thought the call was a prank. Clint Bowyer was working in the body shop of a Ford dealership in his native Emporia, Kan., when his cell phone rang and a woman on the other end asked if he would hold for Richard Childress. He had played plenty of jokes on other people, and figured it was his turn to be on the receiving end. He nearly hung up, but for some reason he stayed on the line, and soon the familiar voice came of the champion NASCAR team owner was asking him to fly to North Carolina the next day.

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That's how it began for Bowyer, the most unheralded competitor in Nextel Cup's championship Chase until Sunday, when he scored a coming-of-age victory at New Hampshire International Speedway that capped a dizzyingly short rise to the elite level of NASCAR. This is a kid who started out on motorcycles, who came up racing primarily on dirt, who moved to asphalt only a few years ago and got his big break because a car owner saw him on TV. So many stars had to align for Bowyer to reach Victory Lane on a bright, crisp, Sunday. All of them did.

"It's been pretty quick," said Bowyer, who earned his first Nextel Cup victory in dominant fashion, leading 222 of 300 laps. "It seems like it's been a long time. But you look back, me and the old man rode motorcycles the other day and we stopped and were talking and it's just amazing how short it's really been. Just three or four years ago we were back home slinging dirt and having fun and someday dreaming about this."

And now he's not only here, but a championship contender in just his second full year on the circuit, a mere five seasons removed from spinning his dirt car around his local track only a few minutes from Kansas Speedway. He is the walking, firesuit-clad embodiment of the American racing dream, an aspiring driver who sank his savings into an ARCA car he found in North Carolina, took it to Nashville in August of 2003, and finished second in his first start. Childress watched that day from his motor coach in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and soon afterward was on the telephone offering the young man a job.

Suddenly Bowyer was driving Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 car part time on the Busch circuit, with Kevin Harvick as a mentor. When Childress hired Bowyer the driver was a virtual unknown, an expatriate dirt-tracker with a heavy right foot and plenty of raw talent. Running only half the season, he won a pole and complied seven top-10 finishes. Harvick could see immediately that his new young teammate was the real deal.

"I was one that went to all the tests with him, and he would test the second half of the day when we would go do all those tests, so I kind of got to see it firsthand how he progressed," said Harvick, who finished 17th Sunday. "At a lot of the racetracks he's really good at now, he struggled with right off the bat. Once he figured it out he really, really came about, so he adds that young, jubilant person to our team and he's progressed really well. Last year to this year is a huge jump, so he's a great piece of our team."

At times, the youth and relative inexperience still show. Trying to pass Denny Hamlin for the lead last week at Richmond, Bowyer spun out and finished 12th. He carried that experience with him every lap Sunday at New Hampshire, even as it became obvious that no other car could beat him. High-strung and excitable over team radio, he complained to spotter Mike Dillon about the handling of his car. He complained about lapped traffic. He wondered if it was going to rain. He waited for the phantoms that had spun him out the week before to strike him once more.

"I didn't want to mess up again," he said.