{"id":15244,"date":"2018-03-09T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T22:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15244"},"modified":"2018-03-11T11:24:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T16:24:16","slug":"tuscon-arizona-native-alex-bowman-couldnt-be-happier-to-return-home-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/09\/tuscon-arizona-native-alex-bowman-couldnt-be-happier-to-return-home-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuscon, Arizona native Alex Bowman couldn\u2019t be happier to return \u201chome\u201d this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, drives through the garage during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 2, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Avondale, Ariz. \u2013 This weekend\u2019s arrival in his home state for Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, is a sentimental first for Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, sits in his car during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

It isn\u2019t his first start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> on the 1-mile oval and it\u2019s not even his first drive in the iconic No. 88 Hendrick Chevrolet Camaro. But it is the first time Bowman, 25, has driven this car as his own, set to take the green flag in a competitive opportunity at his home track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to come home,\u2019\u2019 the Tucson, Ariz. Native said Friday morning before opening practice in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t really get to spend a lot of time out here. It\u2019s definitely an enjoyable trip. I really enjoy this racetrack too. Pretty successful here, wish we could close races a little better here. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have run really well here in the Xfinity Series and in the Cup Series. Just never been able to close one off. Hopefully, that all changes this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Bowman Interview: <\/em><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ISM_MENCS_Bowman_030918.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Filling in for a then-injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. two seasons ago in the Phoenix Fall race, Bowman scored his first ever Cup pole position and led an impressive 194 of the 324 laps on his way to a sixth place finish \u2013 his first top-20 showing there. The pole position and the finish career bests too.<\/p>\n

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Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, sits in his car during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

It wasn\u2019t just good for the heart, it was the ultimate chance to prove he could do big things with the right opportunity. And Hendrick Motorsports is the ultimate opportunity. After being named to take over the No. 88 when Earnhardt retired at the end of last season, Bowman\u2019s career has taken a new avenue and the prospects are now in line with his expectation.<\/p>\n

He won the pole and led 13 laps in the season-opening Daytona 500, but was sidelined after being caught up in an accident. He has added finishes of 20th (Atlanta) and 16th (Las Vegas) since and is actually the highest ranked driver in the four-car Hendrick stable  — 17th in the standings \u2013 coming to Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Daytona went well,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said. \u201cWe had a really fast racecar and contended all day and then got caught up in a wreck at the end. There is really nothing you can do there. But you know, other than that, we have not run how we expect and how we want to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been a great start for us. I think we unloaded at Atlanta and quickly realized that we have a lot of work to do. We\u2019ve got the best guys in the business back at the shop working hard. We made progress last week.  We were definitely better last week. We didn\u2019t get the finish that we would have hoped for, but we are making progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo start the year, we are behind what we expected to be, but like I said before, there is such a depth of really smart people at Hendrick Motorsports that I\u2019m confident that we will be contending for race wins soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Bowman doesn\u2019t necessarily consider his home track a particularly \u201cbest\u201d shot for his first trip to Cup\u2019s victory circle. His best NASCAR finish on it is a runner-up in a 2011 NASCAR K&N West Series race there when Bowman was only 18 years old. But the sixth place here two years ago gives him reason to smile. He remains optimistic about his chances this weekend. His last time behind the wheel of this car at Phoenix produced a career highlight reel. At last, he is in the ride of his life and there has never been a better time \u2013 or frankly, locale — to seize this opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, we have a notebook of what I liked here and a really good one at that,\u2019\u2019 Bowman said of making his first \u201creturn\u201d trip to a track driving a Hendrick car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really fast here before,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a positive. We\u2019ve got some changes. The racecar has changed, we have the new car in the Camaro ZL1.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot has changed, but at the same time at least we have something to kind of look back on and look at what changes I liked and didn\u2019t like throughout practice and where our car was strong and where we needed work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always good to have that notebook to lean on and especially here with as good of a notebook as we\u2019ve had.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Avondale, Ariz. \u2013 This weekend\u2019s arrival in his home state for Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, is a sentimental first for Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman. It isn\u2019t his first start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[491,16],"class_list":["post-15244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","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&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3XS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15244","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=15244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15250,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15244\/revisions\/15250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}