After a start to the 2019 season that produced no top-10 finishes in the first nine races, Alex Bowman is finally on a roll.
The successor to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet scored his second straight runner-up finish in Monday’s rain-delayed Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway.
And until race winner Martin Truex Jr. took control of the event during the third stage and ran away from the rest of the field, it appeared Bowman might have the car to beat.
Late in Stage 2, Bowman used the top lane at the Monster Mile to his advantage and got past teammate Chase Elliott for the lead. He held it until the final lap of the stage when Truex, who had started in the rear, grabbed the top spot for the first time.
“We were in Martin’s way,” Bowman said. “I wish I was in his way at the end of the race. We at least had a shot at it. “That’s really all you can ask for.
“So proud of (crew chief) Greg Ives, everybody on this 88 team. We had a miserable start to the season. We did a really good job resetting over the off week. We’ve come out strong since then.
“It would be better if we had a trophy, right? We needed this, for sure. Talladega (where Bowman posted the first of his two second-place runs) is a speedway. It’s a lot of luck involved. To come here to, in my opinion, the hardest race track we go to, run like that from the back of all things, was pretty special.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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