After a violent wreck last weekend at Michigan International Speedway, Alex Bowman was on the mend this week. He couldn’t walk on Wednesday, just two days prior to hitting the track at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
Bowman missed his allotted simulator time during the week to prepare for NASCAR’s international return. Hendrick Motorsports sim driver and Xfinity Series regular Anthony Alfredo filled in and was on standby throughout at the 15 turn, 2.42-mile road course on Sunday.
Prior to qualifying on Saturday, Bowman said the right side of his lower back through his leg was tight. It was more painful to sit upright in the position to drive. Hopping over curbs on a road course wasn’t an ideal next race. The good news was that nothing was broken.
Running well is a cure all, though. Bowman rallied early from a 31st-place starting position on an alternate pit strategy. He earned eight points in Stage 2, finishing behind Shane van Gisbergen and Christopher Bell. The No. 48 team stayed out at the stage break and pitted on Lap 63, one lap prior to the final caution flying. Bowman jumped ahead of other front-running contenders, such as Ty Gibbs and Chase Elliott.
On the restart, Bowman raced ahead of Bell to second in the running order. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen scooted away to a massive lead, ending the race more than 16 seconds ahead of second place Bell. The No. 48 car faded late, though built enough ground on the bulk of the field to finish fourth. It’s his third top-five result of the season, snapping a three-race stretch with finishes of 29th or worse.
“I think running well probably made it easier than it could have been,” Bowman told Prime Video of finishing fifth. “Just proud of the whole 48 Ally team. I put us behind this week. In full transparency, I couldn’t walk on Wednesday, so I missed all my sim stuff, all my meetings, just trying to get back going. Had a lot of help from a lot of people to fix whatever the hell was going on.
“Thankfully enough, I was able to run all the laps this weekend. Honestly, my goal was to just come here and make all the laps and to end up with a top five, I’ll definitely take it. Wish I wouldn’t have burned the tires off it at the end, but we were pretty decent.”
Away from the famed road course, Bowman wasn’t able to enjoy the city. He was cooped up in a hotel bed, hoping to relieve the pain.
Dating back to late March at Martinsville Speedway, the No. 48 team had seven finishes of 27th or worse during a nine-race span. He plummeted 10 spots in the regular season championship standings to 13th and was on the verge of falling below the elimination line.
“It feels good to get this No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team a run that they deserve,” Bowman said. “We’ve had a lot of fast race cars and just had days that haven’t gone our way. We’ve had issues and there’s been times that I’ve crashed the car, so to get them a good run after everything this week and how hard they’ve had to work is great.”
Bowman often downplays his ability on road courses, but he was victorious last year at the Chicago Street Course and has never finished outside in five starts at Circuit of The Americas. He’s typically a threat at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in the postseason. With three upcoming road courses over the final 10 races of the regular season, Bowman is excited about the opportunities ahead.
“I feel like road course racing has become a strong suit for the No. 48 team,” Bowman added. “I feel like the strategy that we’ve had has been great. Going to slicks there pretty early and getting back positions that way, we’ve done that a couple of times and it makes my job easy from there. So yeah, I think we have a shot at a win.”
First up is Pocono Raceway next weekend, where he has four top-10 finishes in the last six races, including a podium run last year. Even with van Gisbergen securing a playoff spot, Bowman increased his margin over the bubble to 22 points.