Surprisingly, Hendrick Motorsports’ driver Alex Bowman lost points in the race to make the Championship 4 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway next month, but a third-place finish in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway has snared the attention of his competitors.
The Tucson, Ariz. native has been solid in the opening two rounds of the Playoffs, enough to keep the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports in contention with a worst finish of 16th in the cutoff race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway last month.
Earning his fifth top-five run of the season behind winner Joey Logano and Harvick, Bowman even acquired 13 stage points during the 267-lap race on top of his fifth top-10 during the seven-race Playoff stretch thus far.
“I think it’s obviously a really good day for us,” said Bowman. “We didn’t have the car that we hoped to have. We struggled with it quite a bit today. Still got good stage points. Didn’t really have the speed we wanted to have.
“But our last couple changes really got the car dialed in. We needed a little bit longer run there at the end. I think we were the fastest car, just kind of ran out of laps.
“Happy and sad, a little bit bummed we lost points. A little bummed Joey won. That makes my life harder over the next couple weeks. I feel like we had a really good day. I’m really proud of my race team.”
The short net loss of points on Sunday though isn’t sending Bowman and crew chief Greg Ives scrambling, but it is setting the tone on how the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro will need to race to stay alive.
Bowman heads to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend 27 points behind the cutoff spot occupied by Brad Keselowski.
“A lot of people said we were going to go out early in the Playoffs,” added Bowman. “We’re still here fighting. We’re still bringing really fast cars to the racetrack each and every week.
“It’s crazy to think about coming in, like, 17 points back and running third, getting stage points, now being 27 points back. That’s a little wild.
“The summer was really rough. We were able to switch it on a couple weeks before the Playoffs. Ever since then we’ve been firing on all cylinders, bringing great racecars to the racetrack, executing really well. Bristol and Talladega we had some issues. Other than that, really, really good each week. Really proud of my race team.”
While the two-time NASCAR Cup Series winner is hungry for a win in the semi-final round, he also realizes that a competitor or two will launch themselves into the championship race by points and Bowman is poised to utilize the remaining races in the Round of 8 at Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway to have that as a fallback just in case he doesn’t find himself in Victory Lane over the next two weekends.
And the fact that many didn’t expect the No. 88 team to be this far into the Playoffs is only adding fuel to their championship fire.
“Yeah, I use that as a lot of motivation personally,” sounded Bowman. “I love it. Honestly, like, if people want to motivate me, just talk crap about me on the Internet. It works pretty well (smiling).
“Yeah, I mean, I do think my team is a little bit undervalued. They’re one of the best race teams in the garage. They make up for me not being very good at some of these places, give me some pretty great racecars to drive.
“Yeah, I mean, I think we definitely have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. I think those last couple laps go a little bit differently and we could very well be going to Phoenix to race for a championship. I feel like we’re right there, right where we need to be. Everybody is doing a really good job.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
