Rick Ware Racing has yet to name its drivers for 2025, but they have chosen who will be driving the number 15 for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Race car driver Tim Brown is a legend at Bowman Gray, holding 12 championships at Bowman Gray and has 101 wins in the Modified Division. He also has 146 poles. The Clash event will be Brown’s debut in the Cup Series. Brown has been racing at Bowman Gray for 35 years.
Speaking through a news release, Brown said, “I’ve worked my whole life to try to be a Cup driver. I’m good with working on race cars 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.”
He added, “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. 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.”
Brown will also be a part of the Madhouse Classic in the Modified Division on February 1.
Brown spoke on the Modified race and the racing venue saying, “that time in the Modified will be very helpful for multiple reasons. 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 race track 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.”
When not driving, Tim Brown has been a mechanic and car builder for a number of Cup Series owners including Cale Yarborough, Michael Waltrip, Jack Roush, and Rick Ware.
NASCAR last ran a race at Bowman Gray in 1971; The Clash will be the first race back at the historic track.