SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Alex Bowman has seen the highs and lows of what a NASCAR season can bring to a team. It’s easy to forget that at one point in this season, the Hendrick Motorsports driver led the regular season standings.
Bowman was the only driver to have top 10 finishes through the first month of the season. The No. 48 team continued to hit its stride early, earning six top 10s in the first seven races.
Then, that consistency went away.
The No. 48 team finished three straight races outside of the top 10, beginning at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track. Ahead of Dover Motor Speedway, Bowman was injured in a sprint car accident, suffering a fractured vertebra. He missed three Cup Series races and the All-Star Race before returning to action in NASCAR’s longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600.
Hendrick Motorsports was fast at Charlotte, but Bowman finished 12th in his return. He had solid runs at Nashville Superspeedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway go awry with incidents in each race. Even last week at Michigan International Speedway, he thought he was among the best cars in the field, but he was caught up in an incident on a restart. That resulted in his 13th straight finish outside of the top 10, dating back to early April at Richmond Raceway.
In recent years, Bowman has honed in on his road racing skills. He entered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course 44 points below the elimination line. He said on Saturday, however, he thought he would have to win one of the final three races of the regular season. Two of the three were on road courses, which he has never won at.
Bowman laid down the fifth best lap in practice and qualified ninth. It was the first time the No. 48 car made the final round of qualifying since COTA. In a race that saw the final 77 laps completed under the green flag, Bowman was among the top 10 for the duration of the event. He finished eighth in the first two stages, and made a late charge to round out the top five, over 18 seconds behind race winner Michael McDowell.
The result was needed.
“Everyone is like, ‘Man, you’ve sucked for months,’” Bowman said after the race. “It’s really like we finish [expletive], but we run well. It’s nice to get a good finish. It’s been a really [expletive] summer, so I’m glad to get a good finish for our team and we will keep digging.”
Throughout the summer, Bowman’s primary concern has been contending at short tracks. That area has been a struggle point for HMS, with none of its cars finishing inside the top 10 at Richmond last month. Just one cracked the top 10 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway four weeks ago.
“Other than [the short tracks], we’ve been strong,” Bowman said. “Results have been tough. We will keep fighting.”
Even with the top five finish, McDowell’s win puts a hindrance on the No. 48 team potentially qualifying for the postseason. Bowman lost 36 points to the elimination line, now sitting 80 points below Bubba Wallace, who has dropped to the bubble position.
With races at Watkins Glen International and Daytona International Speedway remaining before the playoffs begin, Bowman has to win one of the final two races to make the postseason for a sixth straight season. In six starts at Watkins Glen, he has an average of 21.2 with three finishes of 14th. He finished a career-best fifth at Daytona in this year’s Great American Race.
“I’ve struggled there for a long time,” Bowman said of Watkins Glen. “At the same time, I feel like we’ve struggled here. I’ll have a car capable, I’ve just got to go do my homework and do my job.”
With Chase Elliott finishing second at Indianapolis, Bowman is tied for 19th in the standings.