The way the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season ended has Alex Bowman hopeful his Hendrick Motorsports team can use that as a baseline to start their 2025 campaign.
Bowman and the No. 48 Ally team knocked down five top-10 finishes in the final 10 races of the season. A win on the streets of Chicago in July put him into the postseason and was the boost the team needed going into the final stretch of the year.
“I think we did a really, really good job to end the season,” Bowman said.
There was also a pole position at Bristol Motor Speedway and 53 laps led in the postseason. And until he was eliminated from championship contention, Bowman was crushing the stage point game. The elimination, however, came in the second round. Bowman had the points to advance but was disqualified when his car was found to be too light during post-race inspection at the Charlotte Roval.
“It certainly was disappointing and (it’s) part of racing, sometimes,” Bowman said. “That stuff is going to happen, and unfortunately, we let it happen. It was certainly disappointing but I don’t think it deflated our race team. It didn’t really change much of what we were doing; I think we continued to operate at a high level.
“Obviously, Phoenix didn’t go how we wanted it to, but other than that, I felt like we did a really good job the rest of the season. Martinsville looks bad on paper but we ran 13th at Martinsville with no power steering for the last half of the race. So, we were doing the right things for sure.”
The late season turnaround was attributed, as Bowman credited, to having faster cars. Bowman was 13th in the championship standings and bouncing around the playoff grid bubble as the series headed to Chicago.
A win and faster cars did more than just change the trajectory of Bowman’s season. It also helped to restore some self-confidence.
“I don’t know if I questioned myself, but I think definitely after two back-to-back bigger injuries, it’s easy to get in that spot,” Bowman said. “It wasn’t much fun, especially (because) we were so good before I broke my back and came back and we were good for like two weeks and then terrible the rest of the season. It was crazy how bad we were at places that I’m typically really good at.