48 Alex Bowman
Age: 29 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Resides: Concord, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Greg Ives (interim)
Standings: 20th
No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
ATL REWIND: In the fifth NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2023 season, Alex Bowman started 15th in the 400-mile event at Atlanta Motor Speedway after Saturday’s qualifying session. The driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 finished the first stage in 14th and the second stage in third. On the day, he earned a 14th-place finish at the 1.54-mile venue.
STILL BEST: Through the first five races this year, Bowman has the best average finish of all drivers in the Cup Series. His average finish of 7.80 is best by two positions and is the ninth-best average finish all time through five races by a Hendrick Motorsports driver. Additionally, Bowman has two top-five finishes, four top-10s, 31 laps led and an average starting position of 9.80. The 29-year-old driver also has led laps in three of five races and tallied his sixth straight front row start in the DAYTONA 500 when he captured the pole position in February.
AWESOME IN AUSTIN: This Sunday, the Cup Series heads back to Austin, Texas to take on the first road course of the 2023 Cup Series schedule at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Bowman has turned laps at the serpentine track twice in NASCAR’s premier series, finishing in the top 10 in both appearances (eighth in May 2021 and second in March 2022). The Tucson, Arizona, native has an average finish of 5.00 – third-best of all active drivers. Bowman’s average finish at COTA is his best among active tracks with the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL close behind (6.00 in four starts).
TRUCKIN’ IN TEXAS: On Saturday, Bowman will strap into the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. HendrickCars.com will serve as the team’s primary sponsor while Ally, Bowman’s full-time sponsor in the Cup Series, will be showcased on the truck’s lower-rear quarter panels. He ran this race last year and was contending for the win on the final lap, before an on-track incident relegated him to a 25th-place finish.
GOT THAT DOG IN ‘EM: The No. 48 Ally Racing pit crew holds the fourth-fastest pit stop of the 2023 season. On lap 185 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the five-man crew made a four-tire pit stop of 9.776 seconds. The over-the-wall crew is made up of rear-tire changer Andrew Bridgeforth (rear-tire changer), Jacob Conley (fueler), Allen Holman (jackman), Scott Riddle (tire carrier) and Donnie Tasser (front-tire changer).
HOMETOWN HERO: Parker Winebrenner, aerodynamics engineer for the No. 48 Ally Racing team, will return to his home state this weekend at COTA. A native of Houston, Winebrenner began working with interim crew chief of the No. 48 team Greg Ives and Bowman just before the duo’s first win at Chicagoland Speedway in 2019. His motor sports career started when he worked on a Trans Am TA2 Chevrolet Camaro test car in January 2018 at COTA. Winebrenner went on to work for Napoleon Motorsports and helped in the Pirelli World Challenge, which both competed at COTA, before making his way to Hendrick Motorsports.
SAVE THEM ALL: Bowman and primary partner Ally are teaming up this year to bring back the Best Friends Animal Society donation effort. This week, the duo will make charitable contributions to the PAWS Shelter of Central Texas, which serves the local community in Austin. Bowman and Ally will donate $4,800 to Best Friends and the PAWS Shelter of Central Texas. Ally will increase its donation to $10,000 if the No. 48 team wins on Sunday.
DAY ‘N’ NITE: The No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will adorn two versions of its primary scheme during the 2023 Cup Series season. The No. 48 Ally Chevy “day” scheme will host a white base with bright plum, grapefruit, and seafoam stripes down the side. This version of the primary scheme will appear at races that take place during the day. When the lights come on over the racetrack, the black-based No. 48 Ally Chevy “night” scheme will be sported with a similar design to its daytime counterpart. This weekend, the No. 48 machine will adorn the “day” scheme.
CLOSING IN ON 300: Hendrick Motorsports is seven points-paying victories away from 300 in the NASCAR Cup Series. Twenty drivers have combined to reach the organization’s current total of 293 wins, which is the most in the sport by any one team. With two wins this season, Hendrick Motorsports achieved its 36th multi-win season in the Cup Series. In each of the last 30 seasons, the organization has won at least two races.
ATOP THE BOX: For this weekend’s race, Kevin Meendering (No. 5), Tom Gray (No. 9), Brian Campe (No. 24) and Greg Ives (No. 48) will fill in as crew chiefs. While appealing penalties assessed by NASCAR coming out of Phoenix Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports has elected not to request deferral of personnel suspensions. Meendering and Ives have a wide range of experience as crew chiefs and currently lead the organization’s NASCAR Xfinity Series efforts. Gray is the former lead engineer on the No. 9, while Campe is Hendrick Motorsports’ technical director.
XFINITY RIDES AGAIN: Hendrick Motorsports will make the first of its four starts in the Xfinity Series this season at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). William Byron will drive the car this weekend. The entry will also make starts at Sonoma Raceway with Kyle Larson, Watkins Glen International with Alex Bowman and Darlington Raceway with Larson. Ives and Meendering will oversee the effort. The organization has one championship and 26 wins in the series with Tony Stewart recording the last victory to date at Daytona International Speedway in 2009. Last year’s four races in Xfinity marked the team’s first entries in the series in 13 years. In those four starts, the team earned two pole positions, two runner-up finishes and three top-fives.
EDGE OF SEVENTEEN: For the Xfinity races, the Chevrolet Camaro will carry the No. 17 with sponsorship from HendrickCars.com. The No. 17 carries special significance to the Hendrick Motorsports family as it is the same number Ricky Hendrick drove in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. That number has won 39 times in Xfinity Series history and two of the four drivers to win in it – Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte – would go on to win in the Cup Series with the Rick Hendrick-owned organization.
DISHING ON DEBUTS: Jordan Taylor will become the 14th driver to make his Cup Series debut for Hendrick Motorsports and the first since Byron in 2018. Rob Moroso’s 14th-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October 1988 stands as the best finish by a driver making their top series debut with the team.
IN THE KNOW: This weekend’s race at COTA will be the first time that teams will be on a road course to use the rules package designed to have a decrease in downforce for most short ovals and road courses. Teams will get a 50-minute practice session on Friday, starting at 1:05 p.m. local time. In the event of wet weather, teams will have Goodyear rain tires available for use with white lettering on the sidewalls. Sunday’s race will also mark the first race without predetermined cautions (for stage breaks) since the advent of stage racing in 2017. The last race held before the introduction of stage racing occurred at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Nov. 2016, won by Jimmie Johnson for his record-tying seventh Cup Series title and Hendrick Motorsports’ 12th Cup Series championship.
RULERS OF THE ROAD: At 26 wins, Hendrick Motorsports has the most all-time triumphs on road courses in Cup Series history. The two closest teams in this statistic have combined for only 22 wins. Since their inaugural season in 1984, the organization has won 28.57% of road course events (26 wins in 91 races). The team also tops the board among Cup Series teams on road courses in poles (24), top-five finishes (80), top-10s (138), laps led (2,172) and stage wins (13).
COUNTING ‘EM UP: Seven different drivers have accounted for the 26 road course wins in team history and those seven winners are the most for a Cup Series team on road courses. Jeff Gordon leads the way for the team with nine victories (which are also the most among all drivers) followed by Elliott with seven and Larson has four. Tim Richmond had three wins followed by Johnson, Geoff Bodine and Ricky Rudd with one victory apiece.
WINNING ALL OVER: To date, Hendrick Motorsports has won on seven of the eight road courses they have competed on. Watkins Glen is the winningest road course for the squad with 10 wins followed by Sonoma at seven. The Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL and Riverside International Raceway have each been home to three wins. COTA, the Daytona International Speedway Road Course and Road America have had one victory each by the team. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course is the only layout with left and right turns where the squad has yet to record a victory.
STUDYING THE TRENDS: In the last 20 road course races, the Concord, North Carolina-based organization has won 11 times. Only one other team has more all-time wins on road courses (14) than the number of wins Hendrick Motorsports has scored in the last 20 races on serpentine layouts.
ONE-TWO TIMES FOUR: There have been four occurrences where the team has finished one-two on a road course. In 2019, Elliott and Bowman finished one-two at the Charlotte ROVAL. In 2021, Elliott and Larson finished in the top two at COTA. That same year, Larson topped Elliott in one-two finishes at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. All four of those finishes have come in the last 16 road course races.
TAKE ME TO THE LEADER: Hendrick Motorsports’ 542 laps out front are the third-most in team history through five races. The only higher marks came in 1995 (953 laps led) and 1996 (699 laps led). Those two seasons resulted in the first two of the organization’s 14 Cup Series championship-winning years.
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on pulling double duty at COTA: “I am excited to go truck racing at COTA this weekend. Last year, we had a lot of speed and I am hopeful we have the same this weekend. It would be really neat to have wins in all of NASCAR’s national series and this weekend gives me another chance to add that to my resumé. I also like running the truck because it helps me for Sunday’s Cup Series race.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
