{"id":21774,"date":"2018-09-08T11:35:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T16:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=21774"},"modified":"2018-09-09T20:49:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T01:49:11","slug":"alex-bowman-focused-on-locking-up-monster-energy-playoffs-spot-at-indy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/08\/alex-bowman-focused-on-locking-up-monster-energy-playoffs-spot-at-indy\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman focused on locking up Monster Energy Playoffs spot at Indy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Alex Bowman<\/strong> isn\u2019t quite ready to assume his place in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> Playoffs is secure. Yet. But he has good vibes and a positive outlook heading into the final regular season race, Sunday\u2019s Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Alex Bowman. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Bowman has met or exceeded most expectations in his first full Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He is ranked 16th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings heading into Sunday\u2019s race (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) \u2013 with 16 drivers advancing to the 10-race Playoff.<\/p>\n

And although Bowman hasn\u2019t competed at the notoriously tough 2.5-mile Indy track in three years, he is guardedly optimistic about the right scenario \u2013 a solid finish for himself and no first-time season winner coming from below him in the standings.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/AlexBowman_09082018.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty vulnerable spot coming to Indy with three guys who have won here behind you in points that haven\u2019t won yet, but you know, I think we can get the job done just as good as they can,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said, allowing a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited. I think it would be a great thing to be a part of the Playoffs and hopefully we are in it and we can do it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a high-achieving season for the championship organization\u2019s new hire. Taking over the ride of the sport\u2019s perennial favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would seem innately intimidating, but the 25-year-old Bowman has handled it with grace and put the car right back in the championship spotlight \u2013 a place it hasn\u2019t been since 2015.<\/p>\n

Expectations are high at Hendrick, but no higher than Bowman\u2019s own. This is a career opportunity he is intent to seize. And earning a playoff position in his first full season with the team is exactly the way to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean a lot to me to be in the Playoffs right off the bat,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said. \u201cComing from what I came from and kind of going through everything I went through to make the Playoffs in my first year with Hendrick Motorsports would be really special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to count my chickens before they hatch because I will jinx myself and \u2018bad luck Bowman\u2019 will come out and somebody will win on fuel mileage or something I will be out, but it\u2019s cool to be in this position, hopefully we can pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he is still looking for his first career victory, Bowman\u2019s playoff push has been a redemptory boost to his career and a huge thumbs up to getting the high-profile Hendrick ride. He won the pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500, scored a career-best third-place finish at Pocono last month, has led laps in five different races and earned nine top-10 finishes highlighted by a pair of top fives (fifth at Bristol and third at Pocono).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been strong enough to put Bowman immediately into the playoff picture along with Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott, who scored his first career win at Watkins Glen, and seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who is winless on the season but ranked one position (15th) higher than Bowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think it\u2019s no secret it\u2019s been a rough year for us and for all of Hendrick Motorsports, but we are still in contention for the Playoffs, so that is cool to be a part of,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said. \u201cVastly different than anything else I\u2019ve done in my career or any other position I\u2019ve been in in the Cup Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the lifelong opportunity he has sought and now hopes to seize.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think honestly, the first round as far as tracks is going to be the hardest for us, but I think our speed has definitely been improving,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur execution has been improving, [although] we had a rough last week. But I have one of the best teams in the business and we are always getting better and I\u2019m excited to see what we have brought to the race track this week and every week going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Alex Bowman isn\u2019t quite ready to assume his place in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is secure. Yet. But he has good vibes and a positive outlook heading into the final regular season race, Sunday\u2019s Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard. Bowman has met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":15249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[491,303,421,16],"class_list":["post-21774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-brickyard-400","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS-ISM-Bowman-031018.jpg?fit=4680%2C3144","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5Fc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21776,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21774\/revisions\/21776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}