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“I have no clue,” Alex Bowman said when asked how the
celebration of his rst ever Cup Series win turned into maple
syrup chugging contest.
Bowman says he was chugging other things, but that is just ne when
celebrating what is a monumental achievement for any driver.
Bowman’s rst win came in the Camping World 400 and Chicagoland
when the 26-year-old driver led 88 laps, dominating what was a
strong eld of racers. That win meant that in his fourth season of Cup
Series racing, Bowman had broken through. He had answered his
critics and doubters and had a foundational win on which to build.
Bowman has been under scrutiny since he took over for Dale
Earnhardt Jr. in 2016 when the legendary driver sustained an injury.
To that point, Bowman had a short stint with BK Racing in 2014 that
produced just one top-15 on a plate track, and in 2015, his best nish
was 16th at Talladega.
However, Bowman ran well in Earnhardt’s place, garnering three top-
10s, compared to Earnhardt’s six top-10s in his 18 starts. By 2018,
once Bowman had taken over full-time for Junior, he earned 11 top-
10s which was better than his counterpart’s 2017 season.
In April of 2019, Bowman took his performance to another level,
following his teammate over the nish line for a second-place nish
at Talladega. He would muster another two second place nishes as
Dover and Kansas and a top-10 at the Coke 600.
Three second place nishes were tantalizing, almost cruelly so for
a driver that fought so arduously for that rst win. A month later, he
would get that much-sought-after win at Chicagoland, holding off Kyle
Larson who many felt had a superior car.
Bowman already has 26 top-10 nishes at just 26 years of age. His
win at Chicagoland ranks just ahead of his pole at the 2018 Daytona
500 as a crowing career achievement.
The Tucson, Arizona native has been racing now for 20 years. He
drove quarter midget cars in USAC competition at the age of 7, and
by the time he reached 14 years old, he had 165 feature wins.
Bowman opened the rst round of the Playoffs with a sixth-place nish
at Las Vegas, but he struggled the next week, falling out of the top-20
at Richmond. Nonetheless, Bowman made his mark on the afternoon,
and for his efforts, Darrell Wallace Jr. threw water on Bowman in the
ineld for what he felt like was a bad spin out on lap 42. Bowman was
eliminated in the round of 12 after Kansas.
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If Bowman can improve upon his seven top-ves in 2019, he could
become one of the top young drivers on the circuit, but he will need to
answer several unknowns about consistency to get over that hump.
“I don’t have very many good friends in the garage area, so getting
texts from a couple of the guys has been pretty special,” he said to
USA Today after his rst win at Chicagoland. “Hopefully, they’re still as
excited when I get like 20 wins.”
Before a 2019 race at Pocono, USA Today also asked Bowman’s
teammate Jimmy Johnson what he thought of the young driver’s
development, and Johnson offered praise for his growth in one
particular area.
“I know in the competition meetings, I can hear his condence in what
he is looking for there,” the seven-time Champion, Johnson, said. “But
in the heat of the moment, when you’re just reacting on track, that’s
where he’s grown the most.
“We are who we are out of the car when we get in front of the
microphone who we are right now when talking to media is not
who we are in the car with the helmet on at 140-degree temps. That
guy has matured a lot.”
Bowman had a nice improvement from the rst half of 2019 to the
second. He ranked fourth in points from the last 10 races, after
ranking 15th in the season’s rst half.
That improvement could be a glimpse of things to come if Bowman
can continue his maturation.
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