Alex Bowman has moved past the disappointments of last season, which led him to an emotional moment of frustration where he tossed his phone into his swimming pool. This reaction was in response to being disqualified from a playoff race after his No. 48 Chevrolet failed to meet the minimum weight requirement, resulting in a point penalty that ended his season prematurely, one month before the championship finale.
Feeling that he had a strong chance at the championship, Bowman quickly shifted his mindset after the initial anger wore off. “I was mad for about a day and then it was just time to get back to work,” he noted. Looking ahead, he plans to channel that setback as a source of motivation for the upcoming 2025 Cup Series, which will kick off with the Daytona 500 on February 16.
Reflecting on his performances, Bowman stated, “We ended the season really strong. We had a really good playoff run. It took us too long to find that consistent speed. But we found it. If we can just start there and have that be our baseline, we can have a really strong year. I’m excited to get rolling.” He achieved five top-10 finishes in the 10 playoff races, which provided his Hendrick Motorsports team a shot at making the finale at Phoenix Raceway. However, the issue at Charlotte Motor Speedway altered that path significantly.
Bowman initially finished 18th at the Roval, crossing the line high enough to edge Joey Logano of Team Penske out of the playoff framework by a narrow margin. Unfortunately, a post-race inspection revealed his car did not meet the weight requirements, relegating him to 38th and granting Logano the opportunity to advance instead. Bowman remarked that the weight issue was unintentional, insisting it was beyond his control. “There was nothing anybody could do about it. There’s no way to change it. All we really could do was move on and keep digging,” he explained, while expressing his dissatisfaction with how events unfolded.
The frustration escalated when Bowman discovered the penalty online while at home, a realization that prompted his impulsive phone toss into the pool. In an interesting twist of fate, Logano subsequently captured the championship title four weeks later. Reflecting on the situation, Bowman said, “From different perspectives, it probably makes it worse. I hate that we gave them that opportunity, but we did, and they obviously capitalized on it.”
Despite this setback, there is hope for Bowman as he boasts two wins over the past three seasons and has two years remaining on his contract with Hendrick Motorsports. However, to recover effectively, he will need more frequent appearances in victory lane. Over the last six seasons, Bowman has clinched at least one race win each year, although he experienced a dip after achieving a career-high of four wins in 2021. “Winning multiple races is a big goal of ours,” he said. “And we believe we can. The end of the year proved we can run as well as anybody. We just need to piece that together throughout the course of the whole season.”
The Daytona 500 stands to be a significant opportunity for him. Bowman has begun “The Great American Race” from the front row for four consecutive years spanning 2020 to 2023, including two poles, and secured a seventh-place start last year. Despite earlier struggles on superspeedways, he finished second last year and fifth in 2023, which, while not ideal, were certainly more manageable than previous frustrations. As Bowman aptly noted, “Qualifying means a lot to Mr. Hendrick and everybody in the engine shop and the chassis shop, everybody that puts the cars together. It’s kind of their time to shine. But winning the 500 means a little bit more than that. I would take the win over the pole.”
