AVONDALE, Ariz. – Returning home Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) driver Alex Bowman is counting on Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM (Formerly Phoenix) Raceway to jump-start his first season as the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“It’s always fun to come home,” Bowman, a Tucson, Ariz. native said Friday morning at ISM Raceway.
“Don’t really get to spend a lot of time out here. It’s definitely an enjoyable trip. I really enjoy this racetrack too. Pretty successful here, wish we could close races a little better here.
“We have run really well here in the Xfinity Series and in the Cup Series. Just never been able to close one off. Hopefully, that all changes this weekend.”
Two years ago, Bowman nearly pulled off an upset subbing for a then-injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bowman scored his first ever Cup pole, led an impressive 194 of the race’s 324 laps on his way to a sixth-place finish. Both the pole and the finish are career bests.
Returning to Phoenix brings back good memories for Bowman – but as the new driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, the 25-year-old hopes his sixth Cup start at ISM Raceway could be the juice he needs to give his season a boost.
2018 started off good with a pole and leading 13 laps in the season-opening Daytona 500, but Bowman was caught up in a late-race crash and finished 17th.
Finishes of 20th at Atlanta and 16th at Las Vegas has Bowman ranked the highest among the four-car Hendrick Motorsports stable coming to Phoenix – but he wants more.
“Well, Daytona went well,” added Bowman who sits 17th in the Cup standings after three races. “We had a really fast racecar and contended all day and then got caught up in a wreck at the end. There is really nothing you can do there. But you know, other than that, we have not run how we expect and how we want to run.
“It hasn’t been a great start for us. I think we unloaded at Atlanta and quickly realized that we have a lot of work to do. We’ve got the best guys in the business back at the shop working hard. We made progress last week. We were definitely better last week. We didn’t get the finish that we would have hoped for, but we are making progress.”
Bowman admits that his No. 88 team led by veteran crew chief Greg Ives is behind the eight-ball early into the season but admits that a good run on Sunday furnish the momentum they need to soon be contending for race wins.
“To start the year, we are behind what we expected to be, but like I said before, there is such a depth of really smart people at Hendrick Motorsports that I’m confident that we will be contending for race wins soon.”
After the lone practice of the day Friday morning, Bowman chimed in 12th quickest leaving him optimistic about his chances this weekend.
Absolutely, we have a notebook of what I liked here and a really good one at that,’’ Bowman said of Phoenix return with Hendrick.
“We were really fast here before,’’ he said. “I think it’s a positive. We’ve got some changes. The racecar has changed, we have the new car in the Camaro ZL1.
“A lot has changed, but at the same time at least we have something to kind of look back on and look at what changes I liked and didn’t like throughout practice and where our car was strong and where we needed work.
“I think it’s always good to have that notebook to lean on and especially here with as good of a notebook as we’ve had.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
