Alex Bowman, you just won the NASCAR Cup Series’ second annual Chicago Street Race.
What are you going to do now?
“We’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight, it’s going to be a bad deal,” he said post-race. “I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. That’s just part of this deal sometimes.”
If Bowman’s post-race interview Sunday (July 7) after his eighth career Cup win did anything, it let everyone know how important snapping an 80-race winless streak was to the 31-year-old driver.
It also served as a reminder that Bowman has one of the funniest and likable personalities in the sport.
And judging by this tweet, he’s man of his word.
But I’m here to talk about the first part.
Despite being tied for the second most top-10 finishes (11) through 20 races this season, at no point has Bowman felt like a frontrunner.
How can you be when you’ve only led 14 laps?
And how much confidence can you feel when you’re struggling to prove you still have it after missing time over two seasons for a concussion and a broken back?
“We’ve kind of sucked ever since, and I didn’t — you start to second-guess if you’re ever going to get a chance to win a race again,” Bowman said with the sun setting on downtown Chicago.
He was even more candid about his struggles to return to winning form when he made it to the media center.
“The concussion, and then to straight away go break my back after recovering from that, and then to just tremendously struggle through last year and kind of lose our way a little bit, it was really difficult,” Bowman said. “There’s a lot of noise, and that makes it difficult for the team. …
“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.
“There’s a lot of emotions that go away with this because of how hard that has been.”
But Bowman made sure to note that he never felt like he needed Sunday’s win.
“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,” Bowman said. “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.”
If you had any doubts about the importance of Sunday’s win — or had doubts about his sponsor’s commitment to him in the wake of his struggles — read the tweet from Ally Financial’s chief marketing officer after the race.
From the outside, Bowman was seemingly the ugly duckling of Hendrick Motorsports’ four drivers, despite Chase Elliott‘s rough go of it over the same span and also going winless in 2023.
But that’s Chase Elliott. A Cup champion and NASCAR’s golden goose. He’s not going anywhere, even after one bad season.
Though, as always, any fan chatter on social media should never be taken as reality when it comes to a driver’s prospects.
“Yeah, certainly I have a contract through the end of 2026,” Bowman noted Sunday. “That hasn’t been questioned as much as Twitter would like to believe it has.”
Team Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon seemingly made that even clearer during his press conference when asked if Bowman’s Chicago triumph was “securing him at Hendrick.”
“As far as we’re concerned, 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. Today was not an easy set of circumstances, and he proved he can win in these tough conditions, as well, on a road course.
“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.”
It’s never easy being the third, or even the fourth, wheel at Hendrick.
Just ask Wally Dallenbach Jr., Ken Schrader, Ricky Craven, Casey Mears, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne.
If/when Bowman get another win in the No. 48, he’ll tie Earnhardt as the leader among that group of notable drivers for number of wins with Hendrick with nine.
For being with the team full-time for seven years — and missing time for injury — that’s not too shabby.
It also helps to have the Cup Series’ only remaining full-season sponsor in Ally having your back.
So why not cut loose a little in the Windy City to mark the occasion of a pivotal and personal win?
“I’ve got a couple bottles (of whiskey bourbon) that were bought early in ’22 that were like, ‘the next win we’re going to drink these,’ and they’ve been sitting on the counter way too fucking long,” Bowman said.
“Everybody that said I couldn’t win and don’t deserve to be at Hendrick Motorsports and all that bullshit, cheers to you.”
About the author
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
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Through 2026 huh. Guess that answers a couple of articles on here.