Alex Bowman still driving under the radar despite breakthrough year
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
Alex Bowman isn’t comfortable in the spotlight, yet he keeps putting himself ... in the spotlight.
The first time came in 2018, when he replaced the sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., full-time in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 car.
The next time came in 2021, when Hendrick Motorsports moved him to the No. 48 car formerly driven by seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
Then, as 2021 progressed, Bowman won four races, starting with Richmond in the ninth race of the year. He added a fifth early in 2022, with his win at Las Vegas.
Those five victories in the past 34 races are the most by any driver not named Kyle Larson.
Yet despite the famous car number, despite the wins and despite selling as many T-shirts as possible, making fun of comments from himself and other drivers, Bowman doesn’t garner much attention.
"I don't really like attention," he said. "So it almost makes life a little bit easier for me sometimes."
Alex Bowman on being overlooked
Bowman, who had just two Cup wins prior to last season, doesn’t make it easy on the competition or the media. He returns this weekend to Richmond, the place where his penchant for winning started. And the media are justified in some ways for overlooking him — his finishes this year are first, second, 10th, 14th, 24th and 25th. He has led laps only in the race he won.
So should Bowman be in the spotlight? Is he more of the driver who has won five of the past 34 races or the one who hasn’t finished in the top 10 in half the races this year?
"There are just some days that we've run better than we showed, I feel like, this year," Bowman said. "We're consistently running better than we have in the past."
Bowman will point to the end of the 2020 season, when he actually was running his best. He recorded the second-most points of any driver in the playoffs but was eliminated in the semifinal round. Again, few noticed except Bowman, crew chief Greg Ives and those at Hendrick Motorsports.
"If I could capture exactly what we were doing, then we'd run like that all the time, right?" Bowman said. "But Greg and I and the whole group are trying our best to improve our consistency.
"And I think last year was definitely tough. It felt like we'd either win or finish last. So we’re working on it the best we can, and I think we've made progress and ... the finishes may not really show it, but I think how we run consistently has been better."
Alex Bowman on duplicating success
What has been consistent for Bowman is his ability to take advantage of his wins. After a less-than-stellar burnout after that win at Richmond resulted in some ridicule from his team over the team radio, Bowman quipped, "Get over it. Nobody likes us anyway."
A T-shirt with the slogan "Nobody likes us anyway" was born.
When Bowman tangled with Denny Hamlin at Martinsville last year in earning the win, a frustrated Hamlin called Bowman a "hack" — and another shirt emerged. When Kyle Busch indicated on his in-car radio at Vegas that all Bowman does is back into wins, Bowman started selling more shirts based on that criticism.
The guy who hates attention now sees fans at the track wearing his T-shirts.
"I don't like attention, and I sometimes don't know how to deal with a bunch of attention the best," Bowman said. "So when we're selling thousands of shirts a week and more than we can print, it's pretty wild to see the fan support.
"And it means a lot to me to have that support from fans. So it's pretty cool. It's cool to see them come into the racetrack, and I definitely have had more cheers lately than I have had in my career, so I'm very appreciative for that. But it is definitely different for me for sure."
Alex Bowman on his fan base and T-shirts
Those fans are Bowman's fans. He doesn’t have them as fans just because he drove the famed 88 and now drives the famed 48. He has those fans thanks to his wins, thanks to his performance in the car he drives — not the car number he represents.
"I was very appreciative for the 88 and 48 fans that stuck around," said Bowman, whose sponsor, Ally, helped ease the transition to the 48 car by focusing its marketing on Bowman’s strengths and interests. "But I've never tried to be Dale or Jimmie. Dale, his personality and the way people love him, he's an awesome guy. But I'm me.
"And Jimmie is probably the best human being on the face of the earth, like the nicest guy in the world. And they're different people. And I can only be me ... and I feel like fans appreciate that somewhat."
As for the media? Bowman joked that if he won a championship, the media wouldn't know what to do.
"I just hold the steering wheel," he quipped. "Anybody can do it."
But can he win another five races between this visit to Richmond and a year from now, like he did over the past year?
"That’d be pretty awesome," he said. "We’re sitting here with seven [career] Cup wins, which from kind of where my career path went, I never thought in a million years that that would happen.
"So it's been an awesome ride. And it'd be pretty amazing to continue to have the amount of success we've had in the last year. And I know we're capable of winning a bunch more and chasing a championship. We just have to put the right parts and pieces together."
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What to watch for
With apologies to 2021 spring race winner Alex Bowman (see above), watch for Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. at Richmond.
Hamlin, who is 22nd in the Cup standings, has a stellar record at Richmond, with three wins and 15 top-5 finishes in 30 career starts. He won all four opening stages last year but was second in both races. He was passed for the win on three of the five short-track races in 2021 (Martinsville, Richmond, Bristol asphalt). He really needs a win — will he get it done?
And then there’s Truex, who has won three of the past five Richmond races, including the playoff race last year.
Thinking out loud
Much has been made of Ross Chastain’s move on the final lap at Circuit of the Americas, and it makes me wonder if the line of what is acceptable is the same when the driver is going for a first Cup win as opposed to a 30th win.
A driver with a bunch of trophies might worry about payback later in the year or during the championship. A driver who has made the playoffs several times might not be desperate enough to make a controversial move for the win or to make a playoff return.
But a driver such as Chastain is living year-to-year — yes, he has a contract through 2023, but if he doesn't make the playoffs this year, would there be incentive to renew early? — and one win can extend a career by a season or more.
A driver such as Kevin Harvick doesn’t need to make that move to win a race. Neither does a driver such as Chase Elliot.
But Chastain? He has to do everything he can within the rules to win a race. And he did that Sunday.
Social spotlight
They said it
"These races almost always have late race restarts, and there's so much on the line that you just get to a point where it's like, ‘All right, who just wants it the most?’" — Justin Marks on the COTA finish in which his driver, Ross Chastain, emerged victorious after roughing up AJ Allmendinger
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!
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