Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson have already announced their plans to participate in the $100,000 Kyle Busch NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Bounty, which was originally tossed out by Kevin Harvick as a challenge to any full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver who could defeat Kyle Busch in any of his remaining four NASCAR Truck Series starts of the season.
Elliott will compete at Atlanta and Kansas, while Larson is set for Homestead. Both drivers will run for GMS Racing.
Now, it is beginning to look like Clint Bowyer could be in play as well, soon.
On this week’s Barstool Sports Rubbin Is Racing Podcast, Barstool’s President Dave Portnoy wondered why the driver who co-hosts his show — Clint Bowyer — hadn’t been rumored to be running any upcoming Truck Series races in an effort to snag the bounty money from Kevin Harvick and Gander RV & Outdoors Marcus Lemonis.
According to Bowyer, renting a truck from Kyle Busch Motorsports would cost roughly $140,000, meanwhile the bounty only pays $100,000. In Bowyer’s estimation, the hunt for the bounty seemed like a losing proposition, one that the only true winner would end up being Busch himself.
But never say never, as Portnoy got an interesting Tweet on Friday from Henderson Motorsports, which fields the No. 75 truck in the series part-time.
Hey @stoolpresidente we have a truck available.. We will even do it for half the price. pic.twitter.com/n4WHcBfjUo
— HendersonRaceTeam (@HendersonRace) February 28, 2020
Henderson Motorsports even indicated that they could provide a truck for Bowyer at half the cost ($70,000).
So, Henderson Motorsports shot their shot, but that’s where this ends, right? Well, not quite. Portnoy fired back a response:
Let’s talk. Can @ClintBowyer drive it? https://t.co/5B7kWAynpL
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) February 28, 2020
Henderson Motorsports has one victory in 52 NASCAR Truck Series starts since 2012, which came at Talladega in 2017 with Parker Kligerman driving. The team has scored top-10 finishes at 1.5-mile speedways in the past, including a 10th place effort at Homestead — the final race of the 2019 season.
The team has run Chevrolet and Toyotas in the past. You would imagine in order to have Bowyer — a Ford Performance driver — behind the wheel of their truck that they’d have to convert their truck into a Ford F-150.
If Portnoy and Bowyer can land a deal to drive in an upcoming race, that will mark three drivers who will for sure take Lemonis and Harvick’s challenge.