Everybody was together in Knoxville, Iowa, just like Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wanted.

Bryan Clauson had died as a result of injuries form a crash during a race a few days earlier, and Stenhouse had to convince Tim and Diana Clauson to come. Clauson’s fiancee, Lauren Stewart, and his sister, Taylor, were there. So was Stenhouse's girlfriend, Danica Patrick; and Kyle Larson and his girlfriend Katelyn Sweet.

They sat up talking. The Clausons were the first to go to bed, so the rest moved to Larson’s motor home and kept on talking.

Stewart told Stenhouse about the whole weekend, from Clauson’s accident in Kansas, to the airlift to Nebraska, to the moment they found out he was an organ donor.

They kept talking. Then they looked around. Everybody else was snoring. Patrick and Sweet were asleep. Larson’s head was sagging as he fought to stay awake. It was 5:30 in the morning.

“In that moment,” Stewart said, “I knew Bryan and Ricky’s friendship was something really, really special.”

In the year since Clauson's death, Stenhouse has driven the pace lap in Clauson’s car at Knoxville Nationals, he and Larson wore tribute helmets at Bristol and Stenhouse thanked Clauson after his first NASCAR Cup win.

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This weekend, Stenhouse will be in Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400. He can go to the Clauson-Marshall Racing shop in Fishers and see Tim. He can get dinner with Stewart and the whole family.

Stenhouse was one of the first people Stewart spoke to in the chaos after the accident. Tim Clauson teared up in his office this week talking about how worried Stenhouse was about the family instead of himself.

When he saw Stewart for the first time after the crash, Stenhouse gave her the biggest hug and made a promise. He said Bryan was one of his closest friends, and he and Danica were going to make sure Stewart was taken care of.

"We want you to know that we are here for you, and we are now your best friends," he said.

"He's definitely stayed true to his word," Stewart said. "He's a pretty special guy for doing that."

***

Stenhouse and Clauson came up through the USAC ranks together. They knew each other from the sprint and dirt racing circuits, but they weren't exactly friends.

It was when Clauson went down to Charlotte, N.C., to chase the NASCAR path and Stenhouse soon followed that they connected. They became roommates and they hit it off quickly.

Neither of them drank or loved to party. They were often designated drivers. They didn't talk racing much. It was usually college basketball or some other sport.

They were just relaxed around each other. They would later tell Stewart their best days were spent at fellow driver Landon Cassill's grandmother's house playing cards with her.

Clauson ended up coming back to Indiana when Charlotte didn't go to plan. He went on to be regarded as the nation’s top short-track dirt-car driver for much of the decade, winning four USAC national championships (two in sprint cars, two in midgets), while also competing in three Indianapolis 500s. Stenhouse rose up the NASCAR ranks. The friendship between the two remained strong.

Stewart and Tim Clauson talked about how neither Stenhouse nor Clauson ever had any jealousy toward the other, which Tim said was rare in the racing world. If anything, Stenhouse wished he could get back to his roots more often like Clauson.

"Ricky honestly thought what Bryan was doing for living was the coolest job out there," Stewart said.

***

They had just spent 72 hours waiting on their son's organs to be donated, so a race track was the last place Tim and Diana Clauson wanted to be.

Bryan was slated to run in the Knoxville Nationals, and the owner of his car that weekend, Matt Wood, called telling Tim he wished they could see all the racing community was doing to honor Bryan.

Wood said the track reached out about using Bryan's car to pace the field Thursday. Tim Clauson said sure.

But when he hung up, it started to upset him.

"The one thing Bryan was always adamant about was nobody driving his race cars," Tim said. "They were his race cars."

Wood then called back immediately. He forgot to mention the most important part: Stenhouse was going to drive Bryan's car. Tim then agreed completely.

Ricky called an hour later asking if Tim was coming to Knoxville. Tim said no. Stenhouse mentioned he was driving Bryan's car. He still said no. Stenhouse understood, but he wanted to make his case.

"I think it's important that we're all together," Clauson remembers Stenhouse saying. "If you and I can make it, I think that just completes it. Danica's coming. We're all gonna come. We all, as his friends, we all want you to be there."

Clauson still wasn't convinced, but the next morning Diana said she wanted to see all of this. So they went, and in Knoxville they healed more.

***

They had been planning a "race-cation" for years. Stenhouse wanted to get back out and race dirt cars. They could "rough it," as they called it. They finally did it in June 2016.

Clauson was already racing, and the team graciously offered a car to Stenhouse. They started in Texas, and through Oklahoma and ended in Stenhouse's home track in Memphis, Tenn. Clauson was also running a midget race there, so they called Tim asking if he could throw a car together for Stenhouse to run in it as well.

It fell on Father's Day weekend, and Tim and Rick Stenhouse Sr. joined them in Memphis. Bryan was in the running for the championship, but they were having troubles with his car all weekend.

All four of them, fathers and sons, best friends, spent the whole weekend grinding, trying to figure it out through what Tim called 200-degree weather.

When it was all said and done, they figured it out and Bryan won the race. It was a perfect trip. Stenhouse got to re-live his old racing days, and the four of them were able to do what they love.

"There isn't a conversation that Ricky and I have that doesn't include a reference from that day," Tim said.

***

Stenhouse and Tim sat together in the Knoxville suite all Wednesday night and much of Thursday before Stenhouse paced the field.

They talked about a little of everything. Stenhouse said he wasn't sure if he wanted to run with the World of Outlaws team. The point was to do it with Bryan, not for him.

Then, Stenhouse, sitting right next to Tim Clauson, leaned over and laid his head on Clauson's shoulder.

"Mr. Tim, what are you going to do?" he asked.

Clauson was still debating how involved he would remain in racing. He was still figuring so much out.

"Buddy, I don't know," Clauson said. "But I will promise you this, I will always have one car, and that will be for you and I."

Stenhouse kind of smiled, and said, "I was hoping you weren't going to leave us."

The two talk on the phone at least weekly. The families have met up 10 or 12 times since Clauson's death. It isn't just Stenhouse that's been there for the Clausons. The whole racing community has been there, and that's a big part of why Tim Clauson sticks with it.

But with Stenhouse and the Clausons, they seem to be helping each other through this year. When Stenhouse won his first Cup race at Talladega, he said he couldn't wait to call Tim and Lauren.

"Ricky really looks up to Tim," Stewart said. "I think he really respects Tim for, not only what he's done in racing, but he really respects him for how he's handled everything with Bryan's accident."

When Stenhouse paced the field with Clauson's car in Knoxville, they told him to pull it back into the infield. He pulled in and then hung a right into Victory Lane. Clauson's old line when he won was that he "Parked it" in victory lane. Those words are posted on the walls in the Clauson-Marshall Racing shop.

The guys on the radio asked what Stenhouse was doing. He told Stewart he took off his helmet, turned the radio off and sat there for a second.

"I was parking Bryan's car where it belongs," he told her.