EMPORIA, Kan. – Clint Bowyer has no trouble remembering the first time anybody was able to get him to slow down long enough to spend a day in a tree stand, hunting deer.

Growing up, he was too busy with motocross and stock-car racing to have time to hunt, even though he lived in one of the best areas in the nation for trophy whitetails. But that all changed when Bowyer performed well on the NASCAR Busch Series in 2004 and his owner at the time, Richard Childress, gave him a bonus – an all-expenses-paid trophy hunt.

“I thought we would go to Africa and hunt for lions or something like that,” said Bowyer, 33, who now drives the No. 15 Toyota Camry for the Michael Waltrip Racing team. “Instead, he takes me 40 miles from where I grew up for a Kansas deer hunt.