Tim Brown, a 101-time winner at Bowman Gray Stadium, will compete in the NASCAR Clash on February 2.
The 53-year-old driver will pilot the No. 15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing, the organization in which he works full-time as a suspension and drivetrain specialist.
“I’ve worked my whole life to try to be a Cup driver,” said Brown. “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. Rick Ware and everybody involved here at RWR to give me the chance to go run a Cup race is so humbling and heartwarming. It’s really cool.”
Brown is the winningest driver in the history of Bowman Gray, one of the most historic racetracks in the country, collecting 101 victories in a Tour Type Modified around the quarter-mile track. The Yadkinville, North Carolina native’s accolades also include 12 track championships (1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2021 and 2022) and 146 pole positions.
Rick Ware, a recent inductee into the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame, is a former driver himself who understands the grind it takes to make it in NASCAR. Ware moved into team ownership after injuries prevented him from being in the driver’s seat.
“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,” said Ware. “We’ve had the opportunity to give a lot of drivers their first Cup start, and this one that’s very well-deserved, especially at this track.”
Brown has turned thousands of laps around Bowman-Gray Stadium throughout his racing career, and during NASCAR Clash weekend will have a track time advantage, as he also competes in his Modified on February 1.
“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 2-and-a-half or 3 feet, now that’s 3 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.”
Although he’s never driven a NASCAR Cup Series vehicle, Brown has spent lots of time building them, starting out building racecars for Cale Yarborough Motorsports in high school, and has been present for many iterations of the Cup Series’ technology.
“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.”
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Brown, who says he’s just going to do his best on the racetrack and have a great time.
“The guys who race these Cup cars today are elite. They’re the best drivers in the world, and I’m not even going to put myself in that same category. I’m just going to do the best I can,” Brown said. “I want to climb out of that thing at the end of the Clash and see my son and our family with big smiles on their faces and knowing that we did the best we could because, I promise you, I’m going to give it 110 percent. I just want to enjoy the moment, relish it and soak it all in. I’m not going to leave there and say, ‘Hey, I’m a Cup driver, now.’ I’m just going to leave there knowing this was the experience of a lifetime.”
The 2025 NASCAR Clash will take place at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday, February 2, 2025, at 8:00 PM ET. Coverage will be on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
