CHICAGO — Sitting on Alex Bowman’s counter at his home are a couple of bottles of bourbon that have been there since early 2022 with the intention he’d crack them open the next time he won a NASCAR Cup Series race.
Over two years later, those bottles remain unopened.
Before winning Sunday on the Chicago Street Course, it had been 80 races since Bowman last visited victory lane, a streak of futility that saw his performance fall to a level where questions have begun to bubble surrounding his future employment at Hendrick Motorsports while he also endured two serious injuries that sidelined him for stretches in 2022 and 2023.
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So when Bowman arrives back home in Concord, N.C., he knows exactly what he’s doing.
“They’ve been sitting on the counter way too f— long,” he said after winning Sunday. “Everybody that said I couldn’t win and don’t deserve to be at Hendrick Motorsports and all that bull—, cheers to you.”
When you drive for Hendrick, expectations are high. You’re expected to win races. Plural. Excuses are nonexistent. The pressure is intense when you’re with NASCAR’s most successful organization, awash with every benefit at your disposal.
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Bowman has lived this situation, having experienced it ever since 2017 when Hendrick selected him to replace the retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. And he understands why, amid a winless streak that dates back to March 2022, there had been increasing whispers regarding how long he’d remain as driver of the No. 48 Hendrick car beyond this season.
“It’s important that you jell and the chemistry comes and the effort is there, but you’ve got to win,” said Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman. “Not just because you’re at Hendrick Motorsports, it’s because it’s really hard to get the team where they need to be to compete at the highest level on a regular basis, make the playoffs and then compete at a high level in the playoffs without victories coming to just remind everybody that we’re doing the right things and we’re working in the right direction and we’re working well together.”
While Bowman’s future is solidified, the speculation did carry some merit.
In addition to being winless this season before Sunday, Bowman has had to watch all three Hendrick teammates win and lead the points standings for at least a week. That makes it clear the quality of Hendrick’s equipment on a week-to-week basis.
And as Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron have soared, Bowman has had just an OK season. In the 19 previous races before Chicago, Bowman had led all of six laps and sat on the playoff cut line, in danger of missing NASCAR’s postseason for a second consecutive year.
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“As far as we’re concerned, (sponsor) Ally loves him and we love him,” Gordon said. “He’s a car guy, and there’s a reason why he came to Hendrick Motorsports, and he’s proven he can win.
“I understand why people want to talk and — it’s a tough business. When you’re at Hendrick Motorsports, you do expect, especially when the other three have won, to be in that same category, and it hasn’t been happening. Hopefully this dispels a lot of the rumors.”
A win to remember. #NASCARChicago pic.twitter.com/YHjVop9LJM
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 8, 2024
Coming off a breakthrough four-win season in 2021, Bowman was riding high. The upward trajectory continued into the early part of 2022 when he won in March at Las Vegas, the third race of the season.
That victory would be his last before Chicago. He then went through a summer slump, only to get hot in the playoffs before a concussion sidelined him for five races, ending any shot at a championship.
The rollercoaster continued into 2023. A strong start to the season was curtailed when he broke his back in a crash while racing a sprint car in Iowa. He spent his 30th birthday in a hospital. At the time of injury, he had led the Cup standings for three weeks and had a series-best 10.3 average finish.
“It’s really difficult,” Bowman said. “Obviously, we have all the tools we need to win, and our teammates have been really good throughout that time. But we just couldn’t put it together.
“It has certainly been a large mental test to go through everything that has happened in the last two years and try to continue to overcome that each and every week, especially when things aren’t going your way. And honestly, the last month has been super frustrating for us. We’ve had a lot of things outside of our control, cost us a lot of points, and it’s been really frustrating.”
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After Bowman and his team won at Las Vegas, they decided not to celebrate, as they didn’t return to North Carolina until the wee hours of the morning. They figured more victories were surely coming soon, providing ample opportunity to sip the good stuff.
“We had won a lot pretty recently to that,” Bowman said. “And we all landed at like 4 (a.m.) and every other race we had celebrated and had so much fun with the team and we were all kind of like, ‘Nah, it’s too late, we don’t need to celebrate, we’ll celebrate the next one or whatever.’ I have regretted that ever since.”
Hendrick’s support of Bowman has been steadfast. Not once, Bowman said, has anyone within the organization indicated to him he was on the hot seat.
Still, Bowman knows that a Hendrick driver needs to win. And he wasn’t doing that. Nor was he a sure bet to even qualify for the playoffs.
But then came Sunday. He impressively navigated the Chicago Street Course over the final eight laps despite being at a severe disadvantage on tires that were worn and not equipped to properly handle the track conditions.
The win was the eighth of his career. It was also the one he perhaps appreciates the most considering what it meant to him.
“I broke my back, had a brain injury, and we’ve kind of sucked ever since,” Bowman said. “You start to second-guess if you’re ever going to get a chance to win a race again.
“But as a human being, I’m just a dude trying to do my job the best I possibly can, and I see everything that gets said about me. So to be able to overcome what I’ve gone through and to end up back here, it feels really good. I didn’t need it. Certainly a lot in my life that I don’t need. I’m just appreciative of it.”
There is no more second-guessing. On Sunday, Bowman more than earned the right to celebrate however he best saw fit.
“We’re going to drink so much d— bourbon tonight, it’s going to be a bad deal,” he said. “I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. That’s just part of this deal sometimes.”
(Top photo of Alex Bowman celebrating Sunday’s win: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
