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What are the experiences, beliefs and dreams that shape the lives NASCAR drivers? Staff writer Dustin Long asked Clint Bowyer about these subjects earlier this month as Bowyer sat in a conference hall at Richard Childress Racing with his dog, Trip, at his side. Here is what Newman said.

"One of my first races that I ever won was in Junction City, Kansas, I was leading and was running with like the local hero and he couldn't get around me. He tried and tried and tried. Caution comes out and he ran into me and knocked my tire down, and I was like, "What? What do you do know?'' I've never seen anybody do that, but it was so blatantly obvious. We didn't have a fight, gotten into each other, nothing. I never even knew the guy. It was crazy how it happened. He knocked my tire down and the promoter let me change my tire, (restart) right back to the front. I ended up winning and this guy comes unglued. He &ellipses; jumped out of his car on the front straightaway where I was getting my trophy, chased the flagger into the concession stand. It was unbelievable. The whole crowd, everybody was in a fight. We're like, "What is going on?' Had no clue, but that was my first win. I was probably 15 years old. In a street stock. That was definitely a weird win.''

"Everybody always asks, "What do you eat to prepare yourself for the race?' I just eat grilled chicken. It's not superstition. It's eating healthy and this is what I do. Win, win, chicken dinner.''

"My dad. Working in shop and fighting over the radio. When he wins, you listen to oldies. When I win, you listen to whatever. I just got a huge appreciation of oldies and for Elvis. There are not too many Kings.

"Never had a velvet Elvis. Gil Martin for Christmas one year gave me some original record labels from Sun Studios that were Elvis' original record labels. Really cool, neat thing that's in my office.''

"Never in a million years did I think I would be able to make a living racing cars.

"I have an appreciation for people and their time. I know how busy it is to be on the road and to do what we do all the time and having a schedule and they're very busy. I'm almost timid when celebrities come to the races. It's just "Hey, appreciate you being here and thanks for taking your time.' I don't ever want to bother them. Not that people bother me, but it's very hard to have time to yourself to be able to enjoy doing what you want to do. They're there working just like we are.

"I kind of have my own opinion on movies. It seems that all the movies that win the awards &ellipses; aren't necessarily the best movie of the year but for whatever reason they get the award.''

""Hangover'' was quite entertaining.

"How Jimmie Johnson is so fast? I think anybody in this sport, I think that's the one thing that everybody wishes they knew and had figured out as good as he does it.''

"I was fortunate enough to go to DC and went to the (Walter Reed) hospital and saw the wounded warriors. It's changed their lives in a major, major way. Just to realize how many people are over there fighting for us, for our freedoms and for us to do what we do. It really changed my outlook on things.

"My first job was putting 99-cent labels on cat food boxes and there was a bunch of them. Piles of these boxes that were folded flat and we had to put those 99 cent explosion decals on that you see. It sucked.

"I love building things. I'm a pretty decent fabricator and things like that, but the one thing I never learned how to do is around the house, building houses, electrical, I don't know a lot of things about that. I'm just a believer of being a jack of all trades and being a handyman and those are some things I wish I would have learned more.''

"I think it was in California when we did that. My buddy over at Lake of the Ozarks, that's a golf store and he gave me (an exploding golf ball). It had been in my golf bag forever. I couldn't find the right person to punk and, man, it couldn't have happened any better. Usually when you do things like that, people have an idea and it just all came together and he (Kevin Harvick) didn't have a clue. He took a swing at that thing and it blew up in his face. Oh my God, it was funny.

"We're on the road with each other so much that you've got to respect each other. I don't care if you hate the guy, you've got to be able to respect him enough to want to get along with him. I think that holds true in about in any relationship with anybody in any work. You don't have to like the guy you work with every day, but you better get along with him or you're going to be miserable. I think you're going to have instances where things happen, but if you race as much as we do and as close as we do and as hard as we do, something is going to happen. You've got to be smart enough to realize that.

"Prison Break was a series that was on. I didn't watch it, but my brother for Christmas bought me the set. I told him, don't ever do it again. I was obsessed with it. They always have those (cliff-)hangers where the end of the show that keeps you hanging until the next week and I would have went insane if I was watching back when it was playing. I'd been insane. I was watching four or five hours a day of this thing to try to get to the end. I'd be watching in the (motor) coach before practice and it would leave you hanging and I was like "No! I don't want to go to practice.' I can't stand stuff like that. That was definitely not a good thing for me.''

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or at dustin.long @news-record.com