NASCAR Cup Series

With a two-year extension in hand, Alex Bowman coming into his own at Hendrick

Updated Jun. 24, 2021 10:05 a.m. ET

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

When Alex Bowman signed a two-year contract extension through the 2023 season, he couldn’t really complain about the length of the deal.

"It’s still twice the length of anything else I’ve ever had, so I can’t complain too much," Bowman said.

The contract extension announced last week signified another step for the 28-year-old Bowman, whose Cup career appeared to be over in 2016 before it really got started.

Having driven for underfunded teams and been a somewhat awkward soul in his early 20s, Bowman was relegated to being the Hendrick and Chevrolet test and simulator driver. The role required him to spend hours a day in a simulator, running laps and giving some feedback based on at-track testing and his 71 races of Cup experience.

He had nine Xfinity races scheduled for JR Motorsports in 2016, but his future looked fairly bleak.

Then came an opportunity. When Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to miss races in 2016 because of concussions, Bowman got a shot at 10 races. After that, he returned to the role of simulator and test driver, with only two races scheduled for 2017.

When Earnhardt decided to retire following the 2017 season, he championed the somewhat unproven Bowman to replace him in the No. 88 car. Rick Hendrick agreed.

With a series of one-year deals or options, Bowman continued to do enough to earn additional seasons, making the playoffs in his first year and then winning a race and advancing to at least the second round of the playoffs the following two seasons.

Along the way, he became more comfortable with himself. And sponsors started becoming more comfortable with him, enough that Ally agreed to have Bowman replace the retiring Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 car starting this season.

Ally had a robust sponsorship activation plan, and Hendrick had a message for his driver:

"I told Alex, ‘You've got to be your own guy,’" Hendrick said. "'You can't be Jimmie Johnson light. You got to be Alex Bowman. Just do your deal. We are going to be there with you and you're going to do great.'"

Bowman won two of the first 13 races this season, and Ally used Bowman’s passions — cars and dogs — as the foundation for many of the programs it does with him. A partnership with the Best Friends Animal Society to donate to animal shelters in each city showed that Ally and Bowman could find a common ground with someone who might not be as smooth or as established as Johnson.

Whether it is the success on the track or off the track, Bowman has appeared more comfortable and relaxed this season. Part of that is knowing he has done enough on the track to earn a seat somewhere in the Cup garage, but another part is that he seems to have better mixed the duties of being a spokesman without trying to change who he is.

"A lot of that comes from me being allowed to be who I am and not being worried all the time about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing or not making the right impression," Bowman said. "I think Ally lets me be myself, and that’s been a good thing for me over the years of kind of struggling with being worried about things. It was definitely tough to be myself and have me in an anxious, bad mood at the race track."

That’s Bowman just being honest. He can be moody and negative at times. He is an introvert.

There have been times when crew chief Greg Ives has had to encourage Bowman to pump up the team, to help rally and turn a bleak-looking situation into one in which the team is ready to respond.

More wins and more success have helped Bowman have more confidence in trying to be a team leader. But some wondered if he really could fulfill the legacy of the No. 48 car, which won way more often than Earnhardt’s No. 88.

"He has been an incredible ambassador for Ally. ... We’re super proud of him," Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer said.

As Hendrick has done before, he found a good place for a driver to continue to grow into his own.

"Greg is a great crew chief," Hendrick said. "I just didn't want Alex to have too much pressure on him getting in that situation.

"That is some big shoes to fill. No different than going behind Dale."

Alex Bowman speaks with his crew chief Greg Ives in 2019.

Bowman’s career at Hendrick has always been following in someone else’s shoes. That shouldn’t be the case moving forward.

"He deserves to be [here]," said his teammate, 2019 Cup champion Chase Elliott. "He’s proved his place. He’s been successful. I feel like he works really hard.

"He’s a good race-car driver, and that’s why he’s in the position to be in."

Admittedly, Bowman was nervous when he got the call from Hendrick to get into the No. 48 car with a new sponsor.

Now he shouldn’t be.

"As a driver, you have a lot of sponsorship obligations, and sometimes those are not the most fun, and everything I’ve done with Ally is an absolute blast," Bowman said following his qualifying lap Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway.

And then, Bowman had to have a dry, sarcastic quip:

"Except they made me go to a country concert last night. Country is not my thing. But if that is the worst thing they make me do, it’s not too bad, right?"

They even made this introvert get on stage!

"People everywhere, and I’m like, ‘Oh man, I don’t know about this,’" Bowman said. "They pushed me out of my comfort zone a little bit."

What to watch for

Last year, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick swapped 1-2 finishes in the Pocono doubleheader. Don’t look for that to happen again, as Hendrick Motorsports is the organization that has all the momentum.

Among the Hendrick drivers, William Byron has an average finish at Pocono of 9.7, while Kyle Larson is at 12.4 and Elliott 14.3. Bowman has one top-5 at Pocono.

If you want to look for an upset in the making, Erik Jones has four top-5 finishes in his past five Pocono starts.

But there probably won’t be an upset. Look for the Hendrick drivers to be strong, and keep an eye on those who have been successful at Pocono: Hamlin with six wins, the Busch brothers with three apiece, Martin Truex Jr. with two and several drivers (Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman) with one win apiece.

Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!

Thinking out loud

With the turnout of 38,000 for the inaugural Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway, it definitely seems that there could be room in that market for two Cup events if the Nashville Fair Board does a deal with Speedway Motorsports to renovate the Fairgrounds Speedway.

The fairgrounds is a 0.596-mile oval located in the city. The superspeedway is a 1.33-mile track about 35 miles southeast of Nashville and is owned by Dover Motorsports.

Speedway Motorsports envisions a 30,000-seat capacity for the fairgrounds, meaning the two facilities combined would have 60,000-70,000 seats. That wouldn’t match the capacity at Talladega or Charlotte.

The two tracks would race quite differently, meaning that while it would be two visits to Nashville, there would be potential to attract a different fan to each venue.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other. It can be both. The enthusiasm in Nashville last weekend proved that.

Social spotlight

They said it

"I love racing and competing, and Jeff is the only person I know who hates to lose as much as I do." — Rick Hendrick on naming Jeff Gordon vice chairman

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!