48 Alex Bowman
Age: 27 (April 15, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Resides: Concord, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Greg Ives
Standings: 14th
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No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE IN ATL: Alex Bowman captured his first Atlanta Motor Speedway top-five finish on Sunday after his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet crossed the line third at the end of the 325-lap event. The driver started 14th and quickly worked his way into the top 10. Bowman secured two top-10 stage results after finishing stage one in the sixth position and completing stage two in third. Bowman spent 321 laps inside the top 15 at the 1.5-mile facility, which is 98.8% of the total laps in the event.
DIRT RACING HISTORY: Bowman is no stranger to racing on dirt. The 27-year-old driver qualified on the pole for the 2012 ARCA Racing Series event at Illinois State Fairgrounds’ 1-mile dirt track. He led 20 of 100 laps during that event to bring home a second-place result. Bowman competed in the 2019 and 2020 Chili Bowl Nationals under his own banner of Alex Bowman Racing. In 2019, he earned a top-10 finish during his preliminary night and ultimately finished 12th in the B-Feature. Last year, the Tucson, Arizona, native finished third in his heat race in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, event, was second in the B-Feature, then placed 10th in the A-Main. In preparation for Sunday’s race on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bowman has been practicing at Millbridge Speedway in a micro sprint car.
2021 OVERVIEW: So far during the 2021 Cup Series season, Bowman has one top-five finish, three top-10s and one pole award (the DAYTONA 500). The driver of the No. 48 Ally Camaro has run 286 laps inside the top five and 673 laps inside the top 10 this year. He has the 13th-best average running position (14.03) among active drivers in the series and is tied for sixth when it comes to the most top-10 results in 2021.
IVES HAS DIRT EXPERIENCE: No. 48 crew chief Greg Ives is no stranger to guiding young drivers at dirt tracks. The Bark River, Michigan, native currently calls the shots for his children, son Parker (6 years old) and daughter Taylor (8) at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina. Both run beginner box stocks at the local dirt track while also racing karts at GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina.
IRACING PREP: The No. 48 Ally team has been utilizing the iRacing program to get ready for the real-world dirt event at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday. Both Bowman and Ives have laid down laps at the virtual .533-mile venue to get a better idea of what the track will do over the course of the weekend. Both Ives and his team of engineers used iRacing to test changes to the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to see how it will handle on the track.
SPEEDY ON PIT ROAD: The No. 48 Ally pit crew ranks first among all teams in the NASCAR Cup Series with an average four-tire pit stop of 13.54 seconds. During the event at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend, the five-man team gained four positions during the first pit stop of the day. The team includes fueler Jacob Conley, tire carrier Allen Stallings, jackman Dustin Lineback and tire changers Scott Brzozowski and Devin DelRicco.
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on his dirt experience: “I’m excited. I may not be a dirt guy, per se, but I probably have more dirt starts than most going into Bristol. I ran a couple different midget series for a couple years. While I ran pavement more than dirt, I did run some dirt stuff. I’m going to race my sprint car this year as well. I definitely enjoy the dirt thing. I’m ready to go. I ran the ARCA race on dirt. I feel like that was somewhat similar. I don’t know what to expect. You saw the track get pretty rough over the last couple nights. But those late models make a lot of grip and do some crazy stuff with the rear suspension that, I think, probably tends to dig the racetrack up a little bit. Our cars are heavy. We’ll see if they do the same thing or not.”
Bowman on racing on dirt for the first time for a Cup Series race: “I’m just excited. I love new and different things. I think going somewhere completely different than what we’ve done in the Cup Series for forever is pretty awesome. Who knows if it’s going to be amazing, not great, what the racetrack is going to do or what’s going to happen? I think the fact that it’s new, different and exciting is really cool to be a part of.”
Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on Bowman’s dirt experience: “It’s actually really nice that Alex has some dirt experience racing in the midgets and his love for it. His background and experience really bring an added bonus to not only myself, but the rest of the race team. I grew up having a little bit of dirt experience but most of my stuff was on asphalt. I am definitely looking forward to the challenge of not only the new track configuration, but also the challenge of getting back into the routine of practice. I know qualifying is a heat race but you are just going to have a lot more track time.”
Ives on the speed of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet: “I feel like we have had speed all year. Incidents on the racetrack, whether it is a tire going down or contact with another car, have hampered that finishing position, which ultimately reveals your speed. If you look at when we have been running well and not having those issues, we are capable of top-10s and top-fives every week. Our third-place result last week kind of shows that. You can always talk the talk, but unless you walk the walk it doesn’t really matter, and we were able to do that this week. The pit crew was phenomenal, and Alex did a great job on green-flag cycles and managing restarts. Every time we came on pit road, we picked up spots.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
