By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
One week after finishing second at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval and the ensuing drama that followed post-race when Bubba Wallace threw a beverage in Alex Bowman’s face, Bowman came back to finish third in the Drydene 400 from Dover International Speedway.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver continues his strong playoff run in his No. 88 Chevrolet, finishing three of the four playoff races thus far in the Top-10.
It was a clean day for the most part for Bowman but early on it didn’t seem that way. Bowman and Ryan Blaney got together early on off of Turn 2 and Bowman said post-race he was thinking “Oh, not again!”
Aside from the small run in with Blaney, the only other issue that plagued the No. 88 Cincinnati Inc. Chevrolet team in Sunday’s Drydene 400 was during a pit stop on lap 123 when his Chevrolet fell off the jack ultimately costing him two spots.
“I felt like we struggled a little bit on the short run but really made up for it through the middle of the run. I felt like I had to pass the same guys over and over again, had a couple of bad restarts and that issue on pit road but just so proud of my guys for keeping their heads on straight, staying focused on what we need to stay focused on. We just got to keep moving forward,” said Bowman post-race.
Bowman heads to this weekend’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 from Talladega Superspeedway seventh in the standings with a 17-point cushion on teammate William Byron who currently holds the final transfer spot into the third round of the playoffs.
This team continues to show their strength and I’m proud of all we accomplished today. An unpredictable race ahead, but we’ll be ready for it pic.twitter.com/W4doDkUIOk
— Alex Bowman (@Alex_Bowman) October 6, 2019
Bowman finished second at Talladega in the Spring which led to three consecutive finishes of second that continued onto Dover and Kansas.
On Talladega, “We’ve got to execute and do the best job we can and go from there. Next week is going to be a lot of fun, we’ve just got to stay out of trouble, get a good finish there and have a shot at winning”, said Bowman.
Thus far in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Alex Bowman has one win (Chicagoland), six Top-5s, and 10 Top-10 finishes in 30 starts.