The all-time winningest driver in the history of Bowman Gray Stadium will get his chance to race in the Cup Series as part of the Clash at the Madhouse in February.
Tim Brown, who has 101 wins at the Winston-Salem quarter-mile, will drive the No. 15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing in the exhibition.
Brown, 53, is a suspension and drivetrain mechanic for Ware and RFK Racing, which has an alliance that has both teams working in the same shop and the opportunity to make this happen was too much to resist.
“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. 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.”
For Ware, it’s a chance to live out his dream as a racer turned team owner as well.
“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.”
Brown is also a 12-time Tour Type Modified champion at the track — 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2021 and 2022.
He is also going to race his Modified the Saturday night before the Clash in a non-points exhibition race.
“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.”
Brown will also be a throwback racer at the most throwback race imaginable in the sense that he is literally helping to build his own Cup car.
“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.”
Brown has been working on Cup cars since high school, working for Cale Yarborough before his stints at Roush and Ware.
Expectations?
“The guys who race these Cup cars today are elite,” Brown said. “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.”