The best way the 2024 NASCAR Cup Sequence season ended has Alex Bowman hopeful his Hendrick Motorsports workforce can use that as a baseline to begin their 2025 marketing campaign.
Bowman and the No. 48 Ally workforce knocked down 5 top-10 finishes within the last 10 races of the season. A win on the streets of Chicago in July put him into the postseason and was the enhance the workforce wanted going into the ultimate stretch of the 12 months.
“I believe we did a very, actually good job to finish the season,” Bowman mentioned.
There was additionally a pole place at Bristol Motor Speedway and 53 laps led within the postseason. And till he was eradicated from championship competition, Bowman was crushing the stage level recreation. The elimination, nonetheless, got here within the second spherical. Bowman had the factors to advance however was disqualified when his automobile was discovered to be too gentle throughout post-race inspection on the Charlotte Roval.
“It definitely was disappointing and (it’s) a part of racing, typically,” Bowman mentioned. “That stuff goes to occur, and sadly, we let it occur. It was definitely disappointing however I don’t suppose it deflated our race workforce. It didn’t actually change a lot of what we had been doing; I believe we continued to function at a excessive degree.
“Clearly, Phoenix didn’t go how we needed it to, however aside from that, I felt like we did a very good job the remainder of the season. Martinsville appears to be like dangerous on paper however we ran thirteenth at Martinsville with no energy steering for the final half of the race. So, we had been doing the precise issues for certain.”
The late season turnaround was attributed, as Bowman credited, to having quicker automobiles. Bowman was thirteenth within the championship standings and bouncing across the playoff grid bubble because the collection headed to Chicago.
A win and quicker automobiles did extra than simply change the trajectory of Bowman’s season. It additionally helped to revive some self-confidence.
“I don’t know if I questioned myself, however I believe undoubtedly after two back-to-back greater accidents, it’s simple to get in that spot,” Bowman mentioned. “It wasn’t a lot enjoyable, particularly (as a result of) we had been so good earlier than I broke my again and got here again and we had been good for like two weeks after which horrible the remainder of the season. It was loopy how dangerous we had been at locations that I’m usually actually good at.
“In order that was actually irritating and this 12 months, we didn’t begin the 12 months (nicely) however we turned it round fairly shortly. I believe we’ve carried out a number of the precise issues and I believe being on the opposite aspect of it undoubtedly feels good.”
Bowman missed the ultimate 5 races of the 2022 season due to a concussion suffered in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway. He led the purpose standings after the primary six races of the 2023 because the workforce regarded on the perimeter of going to victory lane. However then Bowman broke his again in a mud race, which sidelined him for 3 races within the spring. The workforce by no means ran the identical once more.
It’s one factor to really feel just like the workforce is again in a great spot, and one other to show it. Bowman has not had a multi-win season since 2021 – the one multi-win season he’s had. The very best end within the championship standings Bowman has had as a Hendrick Motorsports driver is sixth (2020).
“We have to go win races. That’s the most important factor,” Bowman mentioned of 2025. “It’s so onerous to make an outlook simply because who would have mentioned [Joey] Logano would win the championship in the midst of the 12 months? I do suppose being on the nice aspect of issues as a substitute of coming off a poor finish of the season is basically good. So, we simply want to make use of that in the precise methods and capitalize on it and go from there.”
