‘It’s going to be disappointing forever until we win a Daytona 500’

Alex Bowman could complain about finishing second in the Daytona 500. But if Bowman knows how to do anything, it’s to look at the big picture.

At one point in his career, he was fired (he learned that over Twitter) and spent a couple of seasons primarily as the simulator driver (testing setups) for Hendrick Motorsports.

In each of the past two seasons, he has missed races because of injury — in 2022 because of a concussion suffered from an accident in a Cup race (ending his playoff run) and in 2023 because of a broken back suffered in a sprint-car accident (and didn’t make the playoffs).

So it’s not surprising that the 30-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver took the Daytona result in stride while his fans will argue unsuccessfully and with bias that video shows he was the leader when the caution came out (NASCAR has several angles showing his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron was inches ahead).

Bowman heads to Las Vegas this weekend now sporting a two-year winless streak with his most recent Cup win (the seventh of his career) coming in 2022 at Vegas.

Bowman talked with FOX Sports last Sunday morning in Atlanta about that Daytona finish, the last two years and looking ahead in 2024.

Obviously, the first question has to be did you win the Daytona 500?

I don’t have a trophy. So that kind of answers that question, right? Super close and glad to have had a shot at it. That’s all you can really ask for at speedway races. And glad it was a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2. It made it hurt a little bit less for sure.

I posted the video of you saying that you’re over the disappointment Saturday and Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted a GIF that says “I don’t believe you.” I’m curious if you saw that. And if you have a message for Dale Jr. if he doesn’t believe you?

I don’t even have Twitter on my phone. For me, if it wasn’t a teammate, I would be super butthurt still. But I think just seeing how good it was for the company. … It’s going to be disappointing forever until we win a Daytona 500. But at the same time, it was great for the company, and we’ve just got to try to win this week. 

You can’t experience the disappointment without being in position to win it?

Definitely. Last year, we finished fifth or something. And that hurt way less than running second. So when you’re that close, there’s definitely some disappointment with it. But at the same time, it was a great start of the season for us. And things are definitely pointed in a really good direction right now for us.

If the yellow doesn’t come out, do you feel like you’re in position to win that race? Obviously, you would have taken the lead there going into Turn 1?

We would definitely have taken the lead. With the 20 [of Christopher Bell] behind us, the way that Toyotas were kind of able to work to our right rear corners throughout the race and through the duel, I was a little nervous about that. But who knows what plays out if we keep racing? But if the guy [in the officials booth] was a little lazier to the [caution] button, I’d have a trophy. So definitely, definitely tough.

Just after last year, how important is it to start off this year with good runs?

That’s super important. The reset over the offseason was really good for us. And, obviously, last year wasn’t what anybody wanted. The beginning of the season, we kind of showed what we could do, and then I went and broke my back. So hopefully, this season goes a lot better. I’m in a way better place and excited to see what we can do.

Can you explain the pain of a broken back? Can you compare it to anything? 

Honestly, it really wasn’t awful unless you moved wrong. 

Or sneezed?

Yeah, sneezing sucked. That was one of those wrong movements. But just didn’t feel good by any means. I don’t think it’s ever going to feel 100 percent, but I definitely feel way better now than I did at that point. Really, when I landed, it just sounded like that crunch when you’re at the chiropractor, and I was like, “Oh, maybe I just popped my back.” And clearly I was a little wrong on that.

You ran well at the start of last year, and then even when you came back, it seemed like you had a little bit of good runs. When did you feel like you lost it? Did you feel like missing those races is what resulted in kind of the slower second half? 

A lot of things happened outside of our control when we were running well. And then when we didn’t run well, it’s like you couldn’t put us out of our misery. At first, we had speed and then really as a company, we probably fell off a little bit, which seemed to affect us and the 9 [of Chase Elliott] the most. And then just kind of struggled for the rest of the year from then on out. We had some good runs going like Vegas in the fall, I crashed by myself … Pocono we got crashed … Chicago, we were running pretty well. Those good days, if we could have finished those off, I feel like we look a little better than we did. But that’s part of racing sometimes. It kind of comes and goes with ups and downs, and I’m just excited to be able to hit the reset button and get this year going.

When you talk reset … you don’t run Chili Bowl midget-car nationals (and instead crew chief your cars). So you haven’t been in a car for three months before Daytona? Is that what you needed? Or I know the team had some changes? What about the reset you felt was important? 

All of it. Being able to relax a little bit, stop getting your teeth kicked in every Sunday afternoon – when it’s every single Sunday, something’s going wrong and you’re struggling, it gets pretty tough to overcome. So just being able to kind of quit that for a little bit, move some things around on the team side, I think that’s a big positive. And just having some time off to reshape things and get back in the gym super hard and do all the things that you can’t do during the regular season, I think that was really important for us. 

Considering your back, you probably couldn’t be in the gym for a long time, I would assume?

Yes and no. Honestly, I think just the recoveries after races were taking way longer and it was kind of dragging my week out and causing me to not be in the gym like I should have been. It would just kind of linger throughout the week and make things difficult. I feel like I was able to catch up on that this offseason, and I’m in a really good place.

What’s tougher going through what you did last season or going through a season where you don’t know if you’re going to race and you’re in the simulator for eight hours a day?

When you don’t have a job, it’s certainly tougher. My career had a lot of uncertainty at times and a lot of times that I didn’t know what was going to come next. Obviously, injuries are not fun, but having a group that’s behind you and standing behind you, like I had with everybody at HMS and [sponsor] Ally, that meant a lot to me and made it not easy to get through those things, but makes you feel a little better. So definitely appreciative of that. Yeah, those uncertain times are definitely worse.

Your last win was Vegas a couple years ago. What do you remember about that win?

We were decent throughout the day. I don’t think we were the best car. We are a little too free to lead. I think we won one of the stages, but we were really loose whenever we lead, and I think we’re going to finish third or fourth and a late-race pit call got us the win. It was cool to race Kyle Larson to another win. I’ve been on the good side of a couple of those. It was a great day for everybody at HMS, obviously with a bunch of HMS cars up front.

Does it feel like two years?

Yeah. A lot’s gone on in those two years. A couple injuries. A lot of life things. It feels like forever ago, so we’ve got to get another trophy soon.

What do you feel from the races that you’ve won, what do you need to kind of replicate to win again?

We’ve had dominant days, and we’ve had days that we just capitalize on late-race things to be able to get the wins. Either way, it just takes putting yourself in position — and obviously, we started the year doing that [at Daytona].  We just need to continue to do that, and the wins will come.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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