Bowman looks to build on recent success

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Alex Bowman is living life on the bubble.

The driver of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet is currently 15th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings.

But without a check in the win column, Bowman could be on the outside looking in for the Playoffs.

“There is definitely a good bit of pressure obviously that comes with it,” Bowman said. “Really last week was probably the most pressure that I will see until we get to Indy if things keep going the way they have. Definitely in the back of my mind I was looking at the No. 95 car (Kasey Kahne) leading laps and some of the other guys up there, I was like, ‘oh this could get really bad for us.’ Glad it didn’t turn into too bad of a night for us, still got solid stage points and all that.”

Bowman led the Hendrick Motorsports contingent for the past two races – at Chicagoland Speedway and Daytona International Speedway. His 10th-place finish last Saturday was his third consecutive and seventh top-10 result since becoming the driver of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet. Bowman’s 66 laps led this season also tops his three teammates.

“For me, it’s just we have to keep putting races together and keep running solid top 10 and hopefully that gets us there,” Bowman added. “Obviously, we would like to win before the cutoff, but I think we can do it on points we just have to keep moving in the right direction.

“We have kind of struggled to get stage points this year and that has really put us farther behind than I think we would be if we got stage points of how we finish. But we will just keep working at it and I think we can make it.”

After serving as the test driver for HMS, Bowman is well-versed with the systems on the Hendrick campus. His time spent with crew chief Greg Ives has been invaluable for getting up to speed. He feels the team is finally showing the consistency that was missing in the first half of the season.

“Working with Greg is a ton of fun,” Bowman said. “It’s been great working with him. I think we have been pretty solid. We have finally seemed to put races all the way together the last three weeks, not have any big mistakes and finished where we deserved to finish.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. 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.