By Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
When the field barrels through the opening laps following a restart at Pocono Raceway, you’ll see three-wide racing and four-wide tunnels putting the competitors in positions with little to gain and lots to lose.
It’s been the name of the game with the 2019 aero package for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Alex Bowman has seemed to gel with the new package, scoring three consecutive second-place finishes at Talladega, Dover and Kansas before another top-10 finish last week at Charlotte.
In fact, all of Hendrick Motorsports has seen improvement, with Chase Elliott scoring consistent top fives while William Byron has six top-three qualifying efforts and Jimmie Johnson has scored four top 10s and a pole in the last seven races.
“Our cars have been really strong here lately,” Bowman said Friday at Pocono Raceway. “It’s been a lot of fun going to the track the last month. I’ve definitely been enjoying that, I’m proud of everybody — all four of our cars have been really strong.”
For Bowman, Pocono is a perfect place to hit next on the calendar, finishing a then-career-high third place lasts time out in 2018. However, the package update since that day in August keeps Bowman looking forward instead of backward.
“We had a really strong day here in the second race last year,” he said. “But the package is so different that I don’t think there is much we can really transfer over. There’s going to be so much on-throttle time. I’m excited to see how it’s going to drive. Definitely confident coming in, just not sure what we can transfer over from last year.”
With passing a premier difficulty at the 2.5-mile triangle, Bowman stressed the importance of aggression throughout the 400-mile day… specifically, restarts.
“They are always interesting with how long you have into Turn 1,” he said. “So, the draft is going to be more crucial, you’re going to be four- and five-wide into Turn 1 and it’s going to funnel out quick. This place is tough to pass once you get buried in traffic. Track position will be key, but it will be exciting for sure.”
Ironically, it was aggression that put Bowman in a tough spot one week ago in the Coca-Cola 600, when Joey Logano contacted Bowman’s No. 88 on multiple occasions throughout the weekend.
Though Bowman is past it, he hasn’t forgotten it.
“He about crashed us in practice and then he drove into Turn 1 and tried to turn us,” he said of last week. “I don’t know. I like Joey a lot, we’re all racing hard, I’m not super mad about it. I just thought it was dumb is all.
“Everybody has to race everybody hard with this package. There is not a lot of room for give-and-take. I thought the situation — there was a good chunk of the race left, it was unnecessary. I probably wouldn’t have bene as mad if he didn’t try to wreck us in practice. It’s all good and he’ll get his for sure.”