48 Alex Bowman
Age: 28 (April 25, 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
DOVER SUCCESS: Alex Bowman has made 10 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover International Speedway. The Tucson, Arizona, native finished fifth in the second of two events at the venue last season. Bowman has three top-five finishes at Dover, which are the most top-five results at a single track for the Ally driver. Since the start of the 2019 season, Bowman has the third-most top-five results at the 1-mile facility among active drivers. The 28-year-old driver also has six Dover starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, earning two top-five finishes with JR Motorsports in 2016. He led 33 laps in the spring Xfinity Series event that year and crossed the finish line third.
12 COMPLETE: After 12 races this season, Bowman has one win, two top-five finishes, four top-10s and one pole award (DAYTONA 500). The No. 48 Ally team has spent 1,360 laps running inside the top 10. Out of those laps, 650 have been inside the top five. Bowman led the final 10 laps during the event at Richmond Raceway en route to his first short-track victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.
MILES HOLDING ON: Fans who visit Dover this weekend can see the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in the hand of “Miles the Monster” at Victory Plaza. Ally Financial remains the primary sponsor of Victory Plaza and the Monster Bridge Suites. The No. 48 machine that Miles holds is the paint scheme that Jimmie Johnson ran at the track in his final full-time season last year. Standing at 46-feet tall, the base of the monster notes all of the previous drivers who have won at the 1-mile facility.
IVES IN DOVER: Crew chief Greg Ives has 12 starts at Dover in the Cup Series. The Bark River, Michigan, native has four top-five results and six top-10s at the 1-mile venue, with his best finish of second coming the spring of 2019 with Bowman. The crew chief’s résumé also includes two top-five finishes and three top-10s at Dover in the Xfinity Series. Both top-five results came in 2014, when Ives led driver Chase Elliott to two second-place starting positions and 19 laps led before finishing inside the top five. Ives was a race engineer for the No. 48 team at Hendrick Motorsports from 2006 until 2012 when he was a part of four wins, four pole awards and 10 top-10 finishes at Dover.
HOME-TRACK FEELS: No. 48 team rear-tire changer Devin DelRicco grew up 86 miles from Dover International Speedway in Marlboro, Maryland. The 30-year-old athlete visited “the Monster Mile” for the first time in 2005 for the NASCAR Cup Series event. DelRicco has been with Hendrick Motorsports for six years and has two NASCAR Xfinity Series championships with JR Motorsports.
PIT ROAD KNACK: After 12 races in the 2021 season, 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 13.65 seconds. The team includes fueler Jacob Conley, tire carrier Allen Stallings, jackman Dustin Lineback and tire changers Scott Brzozowski and DelRicco.
30-FOR-30: At Darlington Raceway Sunday, Kyle Larson (second), William Byron (fourth) and Chase Elliott (seventh) each finished in the top 10, extending a streak of at least one Hendrick Motorsports driver posting a top-10 result to 30 straight races. Team Penske ranks second with nine consecutive top-10s.
BLACKJACK: Sitting on 20, Hendrick Motorsports is chasing a 21st victory at Dover International Speedway. Six drivers have won for the organization at “the Monster Mile:” Jimmie Johnson (11), Jeff Gordon (five), Elliott (one), Geoff Bodine (one), Ken Schrader (one) and Ricky Rudd (one). Hendrick Motorsports holds the record for most wins at a track by a team with 25 victories at Martinsville Speedway.
UNDEFEATED IN OVERTIME: Four races at Dover have ended past its scheduled distance with Hendrick Motorsports winning each time. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Johnson was victorious in three of those events – 2005, 2015 and 2017 – while Elliott won in overtime in 2018.
CHASE-ING HISTORY: Alex Bowman, Larson and Byron are under 30 years old and have each won a race for Hendrick Motorsports this season. No NASCAR Cup Series team has ever had four drivers under the age of 30 visit victory lane in the same season. Elliott, 25, is the defending Cup Series champion and most recent winner for Hendrick Motorsports at Dover (2018).
TWO TO TIE: Hendrick Motorsports entered the 2021 season within striking distance of one of stock car racing’s most enduring achievements: Petty Enterprises’ all-time team record for NASCAR Cup Series victories. The legendary Petty organization captured the wins record from Carl Kiekhafer Racing more than 60 years ago when Lee Petty took the checkered flag at Orange Speedway on May 29, 1960, for the team’s 53rd victory. Its 268th and most recent win was delivered by driver John Andretti on April 18, 1999. Hendrick Motorsports has earned 266 points-paying Cup Series wins since Rick Hendrick founded the team in 1984 and currently needs just three to break the record at NASCAR’s highest level.
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on why he loves racing at Dover: “This weekend, we are going to a track that has previously been pretty good for our team. Dover is one of my favorite places to go because it is a physically demanding race. It is demanding on both the driver and the car, so you really have to make sure that you take care of your stuff all day. We haven’t had the best of luck the past few weeks, but this Ally team is going into this week with a positive mindset and looking for a reset.”
Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on starting fresh at Dover: “Dover is a great place to get to with our Ally Chevrolet. We have some good notes to go off of, especially from last season. We are looking to go to Dover and continue to march forward. We are starting 16th, which is further back than we would have wanted but we have come from the back before. We have to go into this weekend with a positive mindset and put that last few weeks behind us.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
