Brown to make NASCAR debut with RWR at Bowman Gray Stadium
Yesterday at 02:34 PM
The winningest driver at Bowman Gray Stadium will make his NASCAR debut in The Clash at the same racetrack on Feb. 2.
Tim Brown will drive the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing in the event. Brown competes in the Tour Type Modified division and has won 101 races, 146 poles, and 12 track championships.
In his NASCAR debut, Brown will drive a car he builds. Brown, 53, is a full-time employee for Rick Ware as the suspension and drivetrain specialist.
"I've worked my whole life to try to be a Cup driver," Brown said. "I'm good with working on racecars for a living because it's still a pretty cool gig, but I always wanted to drive for a living. For Rick Ware and everybody involved here at RWR to give me the chance to go run a Cup race is so humbling and so heartwarming. It's really cool."
"I've been Cup racing for almost 35 years now, and I don't know that you'll find a Cup driver who actually gets to build his own Cup car from the ground up, chassis dyno it, and then go race it," Brown said. "These guys that work here at RWR, they're my buddies and they're all racers, and we get to do this as a group effort. I actually get to put the nuts and bolts on it, and mount a seat, put the motor in it, and go drive it on the chassis dyno before I run it in the Clash. That's pretty cool."
"As someone who understands what it's like to try to achieve goals and move up the racing ladder, it's just a great opportunity for Tim and it's something we're proud to do," Ware said. "We've had the opportunity to give a lot of drivers their first Cup start, and this is one that's very well-deserved, especially at this track."
NASCAR is bringing its Cup Series teams back to Bowman Gray for the first time since 1971. The track's Modified Division will also be on the weekend schedule, which Brown will also compete in.
"That time in the Modified will be very helpful for multiple reasons," Brown said. "NASCAR has already done some updates to the stadium with soft walls and things like that. That's going to change the line of the racetrack because you make the track smaller. So the line that we generally run, you won't be able to run because they run right out against the wall. If the soft walls take up two-and-a-half or three feet, now that's three feet that you can't let the car drift out to the wall. Just getting some track time before we climb in the Cup car, which I've never driven before other than on the chassis dyno, will be very helpful."
Brown has decades of experience working on Cup Series cars. His resume includes a time at Cale Yarborough Motorsports and with Jack Roush before joining Ware.
"At Bowman Gray, Tim really has the same opportunity as anybody else," Ware said. "He was with Roush for decades before he was with us. He's a very good mechanic. He's built all his own racecars and he understands racing. I think he's got an inside track just because he has touched every single part of these cars. He's a racer, and particularly at this track, he's got a lot of experience."
