48 Alex Bowman
Age: 28 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Resides: Concord, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Greg Ives
Standings: 11th
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No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
ATL RECAP: Alex Bowman and the No. 48 team brought home a fourth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway last Sunday after starting 17th. Bowman claimed a fourth-place result in stage one and a third-place finish in stage two. During the 260-lap event, the Ally driver ran in the top-five for 83% of the race, which is fourth-best of all drivers. This is Bowman’s second top-five result at the 1.5-mile venue this season.
GRANITE STATE STATS: The driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE will make his 10th start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Bowman’s best finish at the 1.058-mile oval came in 2018 when the team finished 11th after rolling off eighth. In 2018, the 28-year-old driver made his first start in the No. 88 Chevrolet when it was announced that he would take over for injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 10 events. Bowman has two starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the New Hampshire-based venue. In 2011, Bowman made two starts at the track in the ARCA Menards Series East where he completed 100% of the total laps and had an average finish of ninth.
IT BEGAN IN 2016: Bowman made his first Cup start with Hendrick Motorsports at New Hampshire in July of 2016, as he filled in for Earnhardt Jr. Since joining the 13-time Championship team, the driver has made 139 starts and has three pole wins. Since 2016, Bowman has five wins, 22 top-five results, 52 top-10s and three pole awards. The No. 48 driver has led 1,065 laps and has been a part of the NCS playoffs since 2018.
2021 AT A GLANCE: The Tucson, Arizona, native has three wins, six top-five finishes and 11 top-10s, which is tied for the eighth-most top-10 results in the series with Martin Truex Jr. and Tyler Reddick. Bowman is tied for first for the most top-10 finishes in the last nine races with seven. Over the last nine races, Bowman has run 679 laps inside the top five, which is fifth-best overall. He has led 151 laps and is currently ranked sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings after 21 events. Bowman’s three wins this season are tied for second with Truex in the Cup Series. All five of Bowman’s Cup victories came on a different track and all three of his wins in 2021 occurred in the last 13 events.
IVES’ NHMS CREDENTIALS: Crew chief Greg Ives will call the shots for the ninth time at Loudon on Sunday. Ives’ drivers have led 10 laps at the facility, and his best finish at the track came in 2015 when Earnhardt finished fifth after 301 laps. In 2013 and 2014, Ives was a crew chief at JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. His drivers had an average start of 5.0 and an average finish of 8.0. From 2006-2012, Ives was a race engineer on the No. 48 team with Jimmie Johnson. During that time, the team had one win (2010), six top-five finishes and 11 top-10s at New Hampshire.
PIT ROAD STATS: During the 2021 season, the No. 48 pit crew ranks fifth for the fastest four-tire pit stop average in the NASCAR Cup Series with a time of 13.77 seconds. The No. 48 pit crew includes fueler Jacob Conley, tire carrier Allen Stallings, jackman Dustin Lineback, and tire changers Scott Brzozowski (front) and Devin DelRicco (rear).
IN MEMORY: On Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the four Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE race cars of Hendrick Motorsports will carry a special decal in memory of longtime team member Todd Coble, who passed away this week. Coble, who was a sub-assembly technician in the Hendrick Motorsports engine department, spent more than 21 years with the organization.
FINE NINE: Over the last nine NASCAR Cup Series points races, Hendrick Motorsports has won seven times, finished 1-2 on four occasions, won 10 of 19 stages, and led 1,255 of 1,838 laps raced (68%). With 36 total entries across the nine events, the team has scored 19 top-five finishes and 24 top-10s.
WINNING SZN: Through 21 of 36 points-paying races in 2021, Hendrick Motorsports has won 10 times, which is tied for the team record at this point in a season. Its 16 stage wins are the most ever by any organization in the first 21 races. Hendrick Motorsports has scored its third-most top-five finishes (34), second-most top-10s (51) and fourth-most laps led (2,003) after 21 points events.
STREAKING TO THE BREAK: On Sunday at New Hampshire, Hendrick Motorsports will seek its 40th consecutive Cup Series points race with at least one of its Chevrolet race cars inside the top-10 finishers. If it occurs, the team will go into NASCAR’s two-week Olympics break having tied its third-longest streak of top-10s, matching the 1996 and 1997 seasons. The organization’s most consecutive top-10 results came from 2006 to 2008 when it ran off an all-time Cup Series record string of 87. The team’s second-best streak is 51 in a row, which happened from 2011 to 2013.
DROUGHT BUSTER: Although Hendrick Motorsports has nine Cup Series victories at New Hampshire, it has not won there since September 2012 with driver Kasey Kahne – a 14-race span that represents the team’s current longest drought at any active track. Thus far in 2021, the organization has ended winless streaks of 23 races at Richmond Raceway, 13 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 12 races at Pocono Raceway and nine races at Sonoma Raceway.
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on taking on New Hampshire Motor Speedway: “We’ve really improved our short-track program for the No. 48 Ally team. We struggled at Richmond Raceway for a long time and this year we went and won there. Hopefully, we can take some of what we learned there to be good at New Hampshire.”
Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, on preparing for Sunday’s race at Loudon: “New Hampshire is just like any other racetrack. When you run well, it is a lot of fun to drive and when you struggle, it is not a lot of fun to drive. Coming off of a Richmond (Raceway) win and some of our road course success, I feel like we can go into this weekend’s race at New Hampshire with some positive confidence and compete for a top five, if not a win. As a team, we have to stay focused and positive on Sunday.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
