1/11/2015
Chili Bowl Nationals
Q&A with Bryan Clauson
By: Len Hayward (Image Credit: Chuck Stowe)
Q&A with Bryan Clauson, Driver No. 63 Dooling Marketing-Rusty Kunz-Curb Records, Spike, Esslinger
Can you believe it’s been a year already?
It’s definitely flown by. We’ve stayed busy this year, and always helps the time to past. I can remember like it was yesterday and we are excited to be back. This is one we’ve always looked forward to coming to but especially after winning last year. It’s exciting to be back here in Tulsa, and excited to get started here tomorrow.
When did it really sink in that you had finally won?
You know, I don’t know. I think I raced so much this year … I ran about 110 races. I left here and went straight to Australia, and I left Australia and went straight to Florida. I was out West with the winged cars and stuff. (I) didn’t have a lot of time to sit and reflect on it. But it was pretty cool throughout the year, because it never failed anytime I went to a new part of the country people were talking about what we did here. That was pretty special and neat to experience. It kind of showed the true reach of this event.
You had a rocket on your preliminary night and you had a rocket on Saturday, but how much did luck play into the win for you?
I think luck doesn’t win you this thing, but it can certainly lose it for you. You’ve got to be fast enough and have a few things go your way. I look back at last year, and I don’t remember one thing, ‘Man we got lucky there,’ or anything like that. Obviously, it’s tough to get through a full weekend clean. Sometimes little silly stuff happens, and you saw that with Kevin (Swindell) last year. It wasn’t really anybody’s doing, but he just had a bad circumstance and it kind of set him back for the week. It’s as much about having the car to do it finally and getting through the week clean, and we were able to do it. I told Rusty (Kunz) on Monday last year I thought we had the car to beat. I thought we felt pretty good about our chances and to go through the rest of the week and be able to do it and execute was special.
What was it like to win it for Rusty Kunz?
It was cool. Honestly, it would probably mean more to win it this year for him now that I’ve gotten a year to work with him and we’ve obviously become closer. I’ve known Rusty and worked with him briefly but we’ve kind of spent a year together, and the bond is a little bit tighter and closer. We’ve been through some ups and downs together. Obviously, this is one of two races that he really, really cares about. We want to win them all but there’s a couple that he puts a lot of effort into and if you take a look at the 63 car you can tell. It’s pristine, so obviously it would be pretty special to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke. I think we’ve got the car to do it.
What are you plans for 2015?
That’s a good question. Right now everything is kind of fluid, I don’t really have any solid plans other than we are going to run for Joe (Dooling) and Rusty (Kunz) again on the midget side. I’m still waiting for all the schedules to come out to kind of see what exactly we are doing. You’ll see me in the Dooling Machine 63 quite a bit (in 2015) and then from there it will be kind of fluid. I’ve got my own Sprint Car we are going to run on the USAC side still, but not chasing any points, and try and work some winged stuff in quite a bit. Just race what I want when I want and have a little bit of fun.
Submitted By: Bryan Hulbert
