48 Alex Bowman
Age: 27 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Resides: Concord, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Greg Ives
Standings: 17th
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No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
RACING AT RICHMOND: Alex Bowman has nine previous Richmond Raceway starts in the NASCAR Cup Series. His best finish came last fall when he finished ninth after 400 laps. Bowman also has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the Virginia track where he qualified a career-best second and finished ninth in 2016 for JR Motorsports. In 2011, the 27-year-old driver made one start at the track in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, qualifying fourth and finishing fifth after 100 laps.
SHORT-TRACK STATS: Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, has made 31 short-track starts in his seven-year Cup Series career, capturing one top-five finish and six top-10s. Last season, he earned eight top-10 stage finishes at these tracks.
ALL IN THE NUMBERS: The No. 48 team has run 500 laps inside the top five and 996 laps inside the top 10 this NASCAR Cup Series season, which both rank ninth among active drivers. Bowman has the 11th-best average running position (14.22) and finishing position (19.13) after eight events in 2021. The Tucson, Arizona, native has captured one top-five finish, three top-10s and one pole award (the DAYTONA 500) this season.
IVES IN VIRGINIA: Crew chief Greg Ives is set to call his 11th Richmond Raceway event in the Cup Series on Sunday afternoon. The Bark River, Michigan, native’s best finish at the track came in 2015 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought home a fifth-place result after 400 laps. Ives’ drivers have completed 99.8% of the total laps at the Virginia venue. The sixth-year Cup Series crew chief also has four Xfinity Series starts at Richmond and his drivers finished inside the top five all four times. Chase Elliott placed second in both events in 2014 and Regan Smith finished fifth and third in 2013. Ives was a race engineer for the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team from 2006 until 2012. During that time, he was a part of Jimmie Johnson’s three wins, one pole award and seven top-10 finishes at Richmond.
PIT PERFORMANCE: After eight events in 2021, the No. 48 pit crew continues to be the fastest in the NASCAR Cup Series based on average four-tire stop times. The five-man over-the-wall crew has an average four-tire stop time of 13.58 seconds. The team includes fueler Jacob Conley, tire carrier Allen Stallings, jackman Dustin Lineback and tire changers Scott Brzozowski and Devin DelRicco.
TOP-FIVE VIBE: In Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports placed three cars inside the top five with Chase Elliott second, William Byron fourth and Kyle Larson fifth. It was the record-extending 36th time the team has accounted for at least three of the top-five finishers in the same event.
TOP-10 TREND: Hendrick Motorsports has placed at least two of its Chevrolets inside the top 10 in seven of the eight points-paying NASCAR Cup Series races held in 2021 – the most of any team. The organization has 19 top-10 finishes this season.
NO SHORTAGE: No active NASCAR Cup Series team has more short-track victories than Hendrick Motorsports. Going into Sunday’s event at Richmond Raceway, the organization has 51 short-track wins – nine more than next-best Joe Gibbs Racing. Ten different drivers have won on a short track for car owner Rick Hendrick, which is one shy of the all-time record of 11 held by Junior Johnson and Associates.
TRACK FACT: Hendrick Motorsports has won a combined 64 races at the next five tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule: Richmond (10), Talladega (13), Kansas (seven), Darlington (14) and Dover (20).
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on short-track momentum: “Obviously, Sunday’s race was great until it wasn’t. Things out of your control can ruin a really great day, but our team is extremely pumped about how well we were running at Martinsville before the incident on track. Going into another short track this weekend means we have some good momentum. We have struggled at Richmond before, but had a solid top 10 run last fall at the track. This Ally team has a good notebook going into the race and Greg (Ives) keeps reminding everyone to keep your focus set forward. We can’t get back the Martinsville race, so we are going to focus forward and have a solid day on Sunday in Richmond.”
Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on rebounding from Martinsville at Richmond: “We have carried some of the same philosophies from Martinsville to Richmond as far as tuning the car to Alex’s needs. The last time we were at Richmond we had a solid run, not a race-winning run by any means. We were able to continuously fine tune on that. Definitely looking forward to getting there and our confidence is high on Alex’s side. I feel like we have a team capable of coming out of there with a solid day. Starting mid-20s doesn’t help and maybe not getting the best pit stall won’t help, but we have to focus on the positives of what this team has been able to do. We are continuing to march forward and keep looking ahead.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
