Alex Bowman might have fallen short of the chance to back up his breakthrough win at the Chicago Street Course after restarting on the front row in the closing laps at Pocono, but a third-place finish is a very welcome result for the team. It seems to point to a much-needed resurgence for the Hendrick Motorsports team after missing the Playoffs altogether last season.
In 2022, the first year of the Next Gen car, Bowman suffered a concussion after crashing hard with the rear of the car at Texas, keeping him out of the car for five races. Early in the new car’s development, the rear was particularly taut, causing multiple such injuries. In 2023, Bowman suffered a back injury in a hard crash in a sprint car race, taking him out of the car for three races that season too.
With all that adversity, Bowman failed to get to victory lane for two seasons, with his last win before the injuries coming at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the very beginning of the 2022 season. That streak was finally broken at the Chicago Street Course, however, when Bowman took advantage of the rain to get back to victory lane.
Now, just a week later at Pocono, Bowman was on the front row of a late restart with a chance to win. He ended up finishing third, passed by Denny Hamlin before the race ended, but once again had a chance up front.
“Yeah, for sure,” Bowman said when asked if he was felt the momentum. “I think it was important to come here and have another good day after our win last week.
“We’re going to a special racetrack next weekend, so hopefully we can get the job done there,” he added, referring to the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Cup Series will be returning to the oval track there after three years on the road course.
It may indeed be necessary to wait for Indianapolis to call it a full resurgence for Bowman since Pocono may not be indicative of broader trends for the team. The Pennsylvania track has been good to Bowman in the past. He won at the track in 2021, taking advantage of his teammate Kyle Larson blowing a tire on the last lap. And last year he was running third before spinning in front of Denny Hamlin, with a 24th-place finish not reflective of his speed.
Pocono could be a track that Bowman and his No. 48 team expect good results from, no matter the season. However, whether it’s a sign of a broader resurgence or not, a third-place finish certainly helps the stat sheet. Since his last win, Bowman has earned just a dozen top-five finishes in 81 races; Pocono makes it a 13th in 82. Discount road courses and superspeedways and this is just his fifth top-five finish on an oval track in that many races.
Bowman himself was somewhat hesitant to acknowledge that his luck had fully turned around and offered some criticism of his team’s performance.
“We struggled with our car a lot in dirty air,” he appraised the day. “Once we got clean air there in the end, I think most of our adjustments kind of hurt us a little bit; just got too free.
Proud of my No. 48 Ally Best Friends Chevy team. It was a good run; we just needed a little bit more… Once I abused the right-rear tire for so long, it made Denny’s job pretty easy to get around me. But yeah, it was a solid third-place day.”
Criticizing what holds a team back from a win is certainly an improvement over criticizing what holds a team back from running up front altogether, as Bowman has had to do too frequently the past two years. Whether it continues is something to watch for at Indianapolis.
