AUSTIN, Texas: Alex Bowman may not have had race-winning speed in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro during Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, but a late race pit strategy certainly put the Hendrick Motorsports team in a good position.
Following a fourth place finish last weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Bowman returned to the Austin, Texas-based road course looking to end a more than 60-race winless streak and secure his third top-five finish of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Despite starting his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet mid-pack in 17th, Bowman utilized a well-balanced race car to move forward productively through the field.
Inside the top 15, Bowman made a routine pit stop to improve the lateral grip of his race car. Finishing the Stage in 19th after the field had varying race strategies, Bowman had an exceptional Stage 2, which saw him climb inside the top-10 and race as high as seventh before pitting before the end of the stage left him 14th.
Track position fell into the team’s hand at the start of Stage 3 with Bowman restarting fifth and improving to fourth when he made his final scheduled pit stop inside the final 20 laps of the race.
With crew chief Blake Harris electing to bring his driver a lap earlier than the other cars inside the top five, Bowman gained two positions on the strategy and found himself second to race leader and Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron inside the final 15 laps of the 68-lap race.
While doing everything in his power to close in on polesitter Byron, Bowman began to lack the grip he needed, slowing his pace in the closing laps, which allowed the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs to overtake him.
Finding himself under pressure from Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain inside the final laps of the race, Bowman was eventually able to hold steady and distance himself from Reddick to take the checkered flag in fourth and claim his fourth straight Circuit of the Americas top-five finish and fifth top-10 overall since the Series began attending the 3.41-mile road course in 2021.
Most drivers would be ecstatic with a top-five finish after a race that just featured two cautions for stage breaks, but Bowman was the opposite.
I am just bummed,” he explained. “Probably just got stuck out in traffic after our last pit stop. It was a bad spot that I had to run too hard on low air and beat the rear tires up. Kind of inched in on William (Byron) for a bit, but then the rear tires just went away. Yeah, definitely had to manage it some. Definitely some tire fall off here.
We had a good Ally Camaro; we just needed to hold on to the rear grip longer. It’s been the same since we unloaded and we definitely made it better, but still kind of fighting the same thing. Blake and the guys called a good race. We had a good day, just sucks to come up a couple short again.”
Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports was upbeat about the No. 48’s performance on Sunday.
“Bowman, yeah, when he gets on a roll, he gets his confidence up; there’s no telling what they’re capable of doing,” offered Gordon. “I’m really happy for them. Two top fives in a row. They’d had a couple rough weeks, so they needed this.
“Hendrick Motorsports is tough, right? Four of the top drivers and teams out there, and there’s a lot of pressure on you. If you’re winning, there’s pressure to continue. When you’re not winning or you’re not at the same level as your teammates, there’s a ton of pressure that you got to get there.
“I’m proud of him and Blake, the way they’ve been working hard together to get some good finishes. Now I can’t wait to see what they do next, as well.”
Gordon added that Bowman seems to thrive in challenging races. With a disappointing qualifying spot on Saturday morning, Bowman appeared motivated from the drop of the green flag to showcase the speed in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet and everyone took notice, including Gordon.
“Alex is one of those guys where the bigger the challenge, seems the like the better he does,” sounded Gordon. “I’m going to leave here and try to find more ways to really challenge him even more.
“He’s a great race car driver. It just takes the whole combination. They didn’t qualify well, but they had a good car seemed like all weekend. I think his confidence in the car, especially once they dropped the green flag, it showed. Blake called a good race.”
Heading to Richmond (Va.) Raceway next weekend for a Sunday night race on Easter, Bowman sits 11th in the Cup Series standings, 55 points behind Martin Truex Jr.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
