BRISTOL, Tenn. – Only two weeks have passed since Bryan Clauson succumbed to injuries suffered in a crash during the Belleville Midget Nationals in Kansas, but for his friends Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Larson the loss is still painfully fresh.

“He was a great person, awesome race car driver,” Larson said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “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.”

Stenhouse added, “We all loved Bryan.”

“I think one of the things Tim (Clauson, father) and Lauren (Stewart, fiancée) and the whole family wanted to express is they really appreciated everybody’s support and prayers throughout the whole time they were at the hospital and even now,” Stenhouse continued.

“One thing they wanted to make sure everybody knows is that when they found out that Bryan was an organ donor, and knowing that he was still helping people outside of the race car like he always did, helped them have a lot of closure that he was still helping people even though he wasn’t there. They wanted to make sure that everyone was encouraged to maybe check that box and become an organ donor.”

In Saturday’s scheduled Night Race at Bristol – which ended up being run to conclusion on Sunday – the two men honored their friend by wearing helmets with a design on them that Larson believes was his late friend’s favorite.

“He won a lot of big races with some pink helmets,” Larson said. “This has the puzzle pieces for the autism stuff. That meant a lot to him.”

Clauson always had a charity event each year during the Chili Bowl to raise money for the Autism Society.

“Talking with Tim … Kyle and I are gonna give the family our helmets, but I think we’re gonna auction them off at that event on Monday night of Chili Bowl week,” Stenhouse said.

Last weekend when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was idle, Stenhouse drove Clauson’s car around the track at the Knoxville Nationals in an emotional outpouring by everyone for the versatile driver.

“There was not a dry eye in Knoxville when we took that car around,” Stenhouse said. “As Bryan always said, we parked it in victory lane for him and it was super-emotional.”

Stenhouse admitted he wasn’t looking forward to attending the Knoxville Nationals after everything that had occurred, but once he arrived and spent time with the racing family and the community he realized it “was the best thing for everybody.”

“We were telling stories until 5 a.m. on Thursday night/Friday morning about all the good stories that we had of Bryan and the amazing things he did inside and out of the race car,” Stenhouse said. “It was good for all of us to be with each other.”

This week Stenhouse’s Roush Fenway Racing Ford carries a paint scheme that Clauson used in 2008.

“He showed me the ropes of stock car racing and then, obviously, he was the best there was running Sprint Cars, so to be able to run his paint scheme … his family is super-excited and we are, too, at our team.”

Stenhouse said when he moved to North Carolina Clauson was already residing in the Tar Heel state.

“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. “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, obviously, he was the best there was running Sprint Cars.”

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