{"id":14632,"date":"2018-02-11T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T23:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=14632"},"modified":"2018-02-12T22:04:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T04:04:39","slug":"alex-bowman-never-gave-up-en-route-to-daytona-500-pole-winning-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/11\/alex-bowman-never-gave-up-en-route-to-daytona-500-pole-winning-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman never gave up en route to Daytona 500 pole-winning ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Rick Hendrick conceded with a smile that when he first began interacting with driver Alex Bowman two years ago he sometimes mistakenly referred to the young racer as Alex Baldwin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, poses for a photo after winning the Pole Award during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 11, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Getting Bowman\u2019s name right certainly isn\u2019t an issue now as it goes down in the history books as pole winner for next weekend\u2019s 60th<\/sup> annual Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

While the two joked about it Sunday afternoon shortly after Bowman\u2019s headline-earning run in the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, the 24-year old driver acknowledged it has been a long and hard-knocks road to finding a job with the Hall of Fame owner Hendrick\u2026and to a bona fide shot to win on NASCAR\u2019s biggest stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you talked to me in 2015 and told me that in 2018 I was going to be driving the 88 car for Hendrick Motorsports, I would have called you nuts,\u2019\u2019 said Bowman, who replaced the retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Hendrick\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, everything happens for a reason.  My career had a lot of ups and downs, and I’ve been able to lean on my past experiences a lot to make me better and to better prepare myself for this job.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think I’m better because of the things that I had to go through.  I got to make a lot of mistakes without anybody watching.  Just never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, qualifies on the pole with a time of 46.002 seconds and a speed of 195.644 mph for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 11, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

It is just one of the lessons in watching Bowman begin his ascension in NASCAR\u2019s highest ranks.  He comes to the opportunity humbly, for sure.<\/p>\n

After one full season (2013) competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Bowman made his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut as a 21-year old driving for BK Racing in 2014 and then Tommy Baldwin Racing in 2015. A 13th<\/sup> place finish in the 2014 Daytona summer race was his best result in those seasons and the only top-20 finish. He led just three total laps in those first 71 Cup starts (one at Fontana, Calif. in 2015 and two at Kentucky later that season).<\/p>\n

When Rick Hendrick hired Bowman to fill in for the injured Earnhardt in 2016, it was a chance of a lifetime. He drove 10 races while Earnhardt recovered from a concussion, earning three top-10 finishes \u2013 highlighted by a pole position and a career best sixth place finish at his hometown Phoenix track.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t make a single Cup start last season, instead spending time in the Hendrick team\u2019s simulator offering feedback to help the team and being \u201cready\u201d for any call of duty. Earnhardt announced in April he would be stepping away from full-time Cup competition. And then in July, the team formally announced that Bowman would steer the No. 88.<\/p>\n

In the excitement of that announcement, Bowman appropriately enough scored his first-ever NASCAR national series victory in an Xfinity Series race three months later at Charlotte \u2013 one of two Xfinity starts he made on the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a tremendous amount of talent and these guys learn so fast with simulation,\u2019\u2019 Hendrick said. \u201cI’m blown away with what a quick study these young ones are and all the things they do\u2019’<\/p>\n

Former Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who will start alongside Bowman on the front row next Sunday, conceded that he really hadn\u2019t spoken to the young driver much at all before congratulating him on the pole award as they posed together for photos.<\/p>\n

However, the veteran was quick to offer praise and optimism about Bowman\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s earned his position in that car,\u2019\u2019 Hamlin said. \u201cHe subbed phenomenally for Dale Jr., and I thought he really earned that right.  So he’s the guy \u2011\u2011 he got here the old\u2011fashioned way; just like I did many, many years ago, just on hard work and grit.  I think that he’ll handle it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s not a full\u2011blown rookie.  He is a young guy, but he’s been in the Cup Series quite a few years. I think he’ll be the surprising young guy of this year, being that he does have the experience.  He’s just now in a car that will be contending for race wins week in and week out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowman will be one-third of a trio of young, up-and-coming talents teamed with seven-time Monster Energy Series champion Jimmie Johnson at Hendrick Motorsports this season and all four drivers (also Chase Elliott, rookie William Byron and Johnson) advanced to the final 12-driver round of front-row qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all of my years in this sport and my company, we have never worked this close together, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to see,\u2019\u2019 Hendrick said. \u201cSo the proof is going to be when we get down to the Playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s some awful good teams in that garage area.  There’s some awful good cars that are not going to be in the Playoffs.  But I think we’re just going to get better and stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Rick Hendrick conceded with a smile that when he first began interacting with driver Alex Bowman two years ago he sometimes mistakenly referred to the young racer as Alex Baldwin. Getting Bowman\u2019s name right certainly isn\u2019t an issue now as it goes down in the history […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[491,287,16],"class_list":["post-14632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DIS_MENCS_pole_021118.jpg?fit=4185%2C2786&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3O0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14634,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14632\/revisions\/14634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}