Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. honoring Bryan Clauson with special pink helmets at Bristol

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. may have been older than Bryan Clauson, but Stenhouse always looked up to Clauson, who offered Stenhouse a place to stay when he moved to North Carolina and advice on making the transition to NASCAR.

“Even though he was younger, I kind of always looked at him as an older brother because he kind of did everything before I did,” Stenhouse said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “He let me move in with him and we had a lot of fun in North Carolina. He showed me the ropes of stock car racing, and then obviously he was the best there was running sprint cars.”

Clauson died Aug. 7 from injuries sustained in an accident during the Belleville (Kan.) Midget Nationals the night before. The 27-year-old was regarded as one of the nation’s best dirt track racers.

In the days since Clauson’s death, the racing community has paid tribute to him in several ways. During the Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals last weekend, Stenhouse drove a celebratory lap in the car Clauson was slated to drive in the nation’s preeminent sprint car race. Stenhouse was asked by Kyle Larson, another good friend of Clauson’s, to come up to Knoxville and he readily accepted.

“Kyle was in Knoxville and when they came up with the thought of doing it, Kyle asked me if I’d be interested in coming and I said, ‘No doubt, I would be,’” Stenhouse said. “I wasn’t really looking forward to going after everything that happened, but being with the racing family and the community there was the best thing for everybody.

“To get back in his car and give it another trip around Knoxville, which he really loved being at Knoxville, there was not a dry eye in Knoxville when we took that car around. As Bryan always said, we ‘parked it’ in victory lane for him. It was super-emotional.”

Both Stenhouse and Larson will continue to honor Clauson throughout the Bristol weekend. They will wear customized pink helmets with a personal photo of Clauson on the back and his initials on the side. Stenhouse’s photo is of he and Clauson sitting alongside one another; Larson’s photo is of Clauson holding Larson’s young son, Owen.

The helmets will later be auctioned off with the proceeds donated to autism research, a cause Clauson supported.

Stenhouse is also running a special paint scheme mirroring the scheme Clauson had on his car when he raced in the Xfinity Series in 2008. Clauson was then sponsored by Fastenal, which now sponsors Stenhouse.

“This design, I think was his favorite,” Larson said. “He won a lot of big races with some pink helmets.”

Clauson’s fiancée, Lauren Stewart, is planning to be at Bristol for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race. Stenhouse and Larson both plan to spend some time with her and her family.

“That is going to be fun to hang out with them,” Larson said. “I got to spend a little bit of time with Lauren and Bryan’s families at Knoxville. Just do what we can to show our support.

“He was a great person, awesome race car driver; we have both finished second to him quite a bit. I hate to see him go, but we are going to do our part to support him.”