BRISTOL, Tenn. — Despite entering the Cup Series Playoffs as just one of two drivers without a victory, the vibes still felt good for Alex Bowman entering the 10-race quest for the championship.
Bowman tallied top 10s in seven of the 11 races prior to the postseason and looked to be a sure-fire contender to make a run at least into the Round of 12. But that hasn’t been the case for the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team and it’s primarily due to errors on pit road.
A disastrous 40-second pit stop at Darlington and another slow stop last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway have set back Bowman entering Saturday’s first-round elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) and now faces a virtual must-win situation down 35 points to the cutline.
For this weekend, Hendrick made the call to swap all pit-crew members, minus the fueler, with the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team in hopes of solving the pit-stop puzzle.
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“I wasn’t super involved in it, had some conversations, but not super deeply involved in it,” Bowman said Friday at Bristol. “Those guys have been super fast at points throughout this year and they’re all really great athletes and do a good job. We’ve just had a bad two weeks at a time that we can’t have a bad two weeks.”
After a runner-up result at Richmond, it seemed Bowman was primed to begin the prep for a walkthrough into the playoffs. However, an early crash in the regular-season finale at Daytona had Bowman sweating until the checkered flag when Ryan Blaney outdueled a handful of underdogs to keep the cutline below Bowman and lock the Tucson, Arizona native into the title battle.
But the ick hasn’t been scrubbed since Daytona, and Bowman has qualified 25th or worse in each of the first two playoff races and finished 31st (Darlington) and 26th (Gateway).
“Certainly frustrating, right?” Bowman said. “We had a really good summer and the switch turned off for us, for sure. It’s kind of mortifying how bad we’ve been. It’s embarrassing. It’s not from a lack of effort, like everybody’s working so hard at HMS and our whole team is. We’ve just not put days together like we need to. So yeah, working hard to turn that around this weekend.”
The first item on the checklist toward willing the No. 48 team into the Round of 12 is a good qualifying lap.
Bowman has won the last two Busch Light Pole awards at “The Last Great Colosseum” and a third one would equate to the most coveted pit stall at the short track, improving his slim chances of advancing on points.
Despite the inadequate circumstances coming into Bristol, Bowman isn’t approaching the race any different than he usually does.
“It’s really not that different than we normally would,” Bowman said. “We’re in such a tough spot, it’s almost less stressful, right? It’s not like we’re really close to the cutline and you’re trying to make sure you don’t make any mistakes. We got to make something happen. Mentally going through these last couple weeks has not been a fun time for me, but mentally it’s always kind of not been a fun time for me the last couple years. Just trying to run the best we can this weekend and be as prepared as I can be to go out there and do my job.”
With the pit crew swap, there’s no animosity or hurt feelings toward the members moving over to Carson Hocevar and the No. 77 team, and Bowman hopes that it will lead to good fortunes for both himself and Spire when the green flag waves Saturday evening.
“I’m definitely friends with all those guys and appreciative for all their hard work,” Bowman said. “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they had an amazing day on pit road on the 77 car and looked really good. I think for us, we needed a change, and just trying to have the best shot we can at winning this weekend.”
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