Clint Bowyer shares NASCAR bond with Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost

Clint Bowyer’s affinity for the Kansas City Royals is strong and frequently the Emporia, Kan., native can be seen in the NASCAR garage wearing a Royals hat when he’s not driving the No. 15 car.

By happenstance, Bowyer’s regular job takes him this weekend to Kansas Speedway, 22 miles from Kauffman Stadium where the Royals will play the Toronto Blue Jays in the first two games of the American League Championship Series Friday and Saturday.

Bowyer will be in attendance courtesy of tickets provided by Royals manager Ned Yost, an ardent NASCAR fan who’s developed a friendship with Bowyer.

“I didn’t have tickets,” Bowyer said Friday. “He texted me and now I have really good tickets.”

As a coach with the Atlanta Braves in the early 1990s, Yost became close friends with the late Dale Earnhardt, an avid Braves fan. The two would often hunt together and in 1994 with Major League Baseball in the midst of a labor stoppage, Yost actually served as a crew member on Dale Earnhardt’s team performing small tasks.

Yost’s NASCAR fandom came to the forefront when Bowyer visited the Royals clubhouse last year just prior to the team taking the field for Game 1 of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants. The opening pitch may have been minutes away, but Yost had questions he needed Bowyer to answer.

“He introduces you and takes you around and throws everybody out of his office 20 minutes before the game and sits you down and he’s like, ‘Alright, now level with me, who’s good this weekend?’” Bowyer said. “They had a NASCAR fantasy league going on with all the coaches and he wanted the inside scoop. This was literally 20 minutes before Game 1.

“He’s just a really neat guy to see. When it’s an extreme element like that, he’s super calm and collected like you see on TV. I know they’ve chewed at least five cans of chew (tobacco). It’s amazing to see how they’re all calm and collected and coaching these guys in one of the biggest games ever.”