Anything that could go wrong did go wrong for Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team throughout the opening nine Cup Series races to begin the 2026 Cup Series season.
Finally, something went right for the Arizona native in Sunday’s Jack Links 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
After collecting three stage points in Stage 2, Bowman had track position throughout the final stage. He was planted on the rear bumper of Carson Hocevar for much of the final stint, riding around the 2.66-mile oval around the inside line.
On the final lap, it was the No. 48 car that pushed Hocevar ahead of the pack to score the Spire Motorsports driver’s first Cup victory. Bowman took the checkered flag in third, his first top-five finish since last August at Richmond Raceway, 16 starts ago.
“To be blunt, it just feels good to get out here without crashing,” Bowman told Fox Sports after the event. “I’m getting old, [and] don’t have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean.
“We had a great Ally 48 Chevy all day. Felt like we played the race the best we could kind of with the situations we were given.”
Being trapped on the inside of the second row for much of the final stage, Bowman believed his only shot to contend for the win was to push Hocevar out far enough to the point where he had to defend the top line. Otherwise, he would need something outside of his control to happen.
“I don’t think there was ever an opportunity to move up, which I don’t know that I would have moved up because these races are, statistically, won from the bottom at the end,” Bowman told reporters. “It’s hard to say if I could have done anything different. I feel like we executed everything we needed for that last run. If we would have won, it probably would have to fall into our lap a little bit.”
Getting away unscathed is particularly noteworthy. Bowman had a bout with vertigo that lasted over a month, sidelining the eight-time Cup winner for four races. On March 1 at Circuit of The Americas, Myatt Snider hopped in the No. 48 car for the final 20 laps when the symptoms began.
When Bowman was at the helm, the numbers were dreadful to kickstart the season. Entering Talladega, he tallied 42 points total in five starts and was the caboose in the field among full-time competitors. He nearly doubled his total at Talladega alone, banking 37 points, though he remains 36th in the order.
“It feels good,” Bowman told reporters of the podium effort. “I would much rather do that at a non-[superspeedway] when you feel like the driver has more to do with it. Things went our way.
“It was nice to get a solid finish. It’s been hard just to finish races this year.”
On the owners side, the No. 48 team leaped a trio of spots in the standings to 32nd. Bowman led the way for HMS at Talladega, with Chase Elliott just behind in fourth.
“Happy for the team; they’ve had an incredibly rough go at it from a lot of angles for the entire season,” Bowman added.
The Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend where Bowman has a pair of top-five finishes in 16 starts. He has finishes of 29th or worse – including three DNFs – in four of the last five trips to the 1.5-mile oval.