HAMPTON, Ga. — It wasn’t a victory, but Alex Bowman’s third-place result in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway was a feel-good run for a team that needed things to go right after showing early-season speed but having little to show for it.
Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn’t have anything to contend with eventual winner Ryan Blaney or race-long dominator Kyle Larson, but a podium effort marked Bowman’s best finish so far this year and his third top 10 in six NASCAR Cup Series races.
“I felt like we had a pretty solid day,” Bowman said. “We kind of struggled on long runs a little bit, but we had really good pit stops all day. Our Camaro was pretty fast. (We had) decent restarts. Nothing went wrong for once. It seems like every race all year, something has gone wrong, so I was just glad we were able to put an entire day together and not have anything go wrong.
“Greg (Ives, crew chief) called a great race. We were just a little off; I was on the splitter a little bit over the bumps and then would kind of snap the back of the car out of the race track after that. Solid day. Really proud of the 48 team.”
Now in his fourth season with crew chief Greg Ives, Bowman said the veteran signal-caller has built him into a better driver over the course of their tenure together.
How has Ives benefited Bowman?
“Riddles,” tipped Bowman with a smile. “He likes to talk in riddles.
“I feel like Greg and I are both a little awkward at times. But I think recently Greg has stepped up and kind of identified some areas where he can help me in the race car, whether it’s on the radio, by giving me more information, helping me understand things, or telling me things I can do differently based on what he sees in the driver data and stuff like that,” he added. “I feel like in this race, Greg talked more on the radio than he has for any race I ever have been a part of. I think it was really positive.
“We’ve been working together for four years now, but we still are learning. I feel like we learned some things that he can use to help me (late last year) and it’s definitely showing.”
By the numbers, Hendrick Motorsports is off to one of the best starts to a Cup Series season in the history of the organization.
With two wins and a combined 14 top-10 results from its four drivers through the first six weeks of the season, all four of team owner Rick Hendrick’s drivers — Bowman, Larson, William Byron and defending Cup Series champion Chase Elliott — are solidly in playoff contention after the first quarter of the regular season.
Though Bowman is the lowest of the four — ranked 14th in the Cup Series standings — he’s coming off his most complete run so far and believes it’s a sign of things to come for his No. 48 Chevrolet team.
“We’ve struggled in some areas this year that have been pretty frustrating,” admitted Bowman, who earned points in both stages Sunday. “I feel like we really struggled in dirty air, maneuverability in traffic, and restarts and stuff. But we worked really hard at bringing something to the race track this week that I could be aggressive with and could drive hard.
“It felt good to have that, to be able to pass cars. My pit crew did a great job keeping us up front as well. It definitely feels good to be closer to the front,” Bowman added. “We want to be a couple of spots better, but after the last couple of weeks, this definitely feels pretty good.”
Bowman told SPEED SPORT that not only is he learning from his three teammates, he’s enjoying the ride as he targets his fourth consecutive Cup Series playoff appearance.
“Every day walking into HMS for me is a dream come true. I’m still enjoying every minute of it,” tipped Bowman. “I feel like this is the strongest start to the season the company overall has had. I feel like, as a race team, we were a little better the beginning of last year than we have been the beginning of this year. I feel like we specifically could have won Vegas (in 2020). We did win Fontana and then came back after the (COVID-19) break pretty strong.
“This year, I feel like we’re a little behind. But the 5 (Larson) and 24 (Byron) specifically are super-fast each and every week. It always is good to be able to learn from them. Overall, though, everything is going very well. A lot of really smart people are working really hard back at the shop and it’s paying off.”