{"id":26279,"date":"2019-05-31T14:30:52","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T19:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=26279"},"modified":"2019-06-02T13:20:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T18:20:05","slug":"alex-bowmans-recent-momentum-could-lead-him-to-victory-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/alex-bowmans-recent-momentum-could-lead-him-to-victory-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman’s recent momentum could lead him to Victory Lane \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Alex Bowman<\/strong><\/a> showed up in the Pocono Raceway Media Center feeling as confident and optimistic as he has in his young career. The 26-year old is coming off the best four-race stretch he\u2019s ever turned in \u2013 including three consecutive runner-up finishes at Talladega, Dover and Kansas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alex Bowman drives the #88 Axalta Chevrolet through the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway on May 31, 2019 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week he answered with a seventh place run in the sport\u2019s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This week he has every reason to feel like a contender in Sunday\u2019s Pocono 400 at the historic 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

And now everyone else expects him to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, I think our cars have been really strong lately,” Bowman said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun going to the race track the last month. I\u2019ve definitely been enjoying that and I\u2019m really proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll four of our cars have been really strong lately, so that\u2019s been good.”<\/p>\n

The fact Bowman\u2019s teammates \u2013 seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott and second-year driver William Byron \u2013 have shown vast improvement speaks volumes for the team\u2019s state of competition.<\/p>\n

At most tracks they visit, the 83-race winner Johnson shows up the winningest driver there and his six top-10s through only a third of the season is already more than half his season total in both 2017 (11 top 10s) and 2018 (11 top 10s).<\/p>\n

Elliott has already won once in 2019 \u2013 taking the Talladega trophy \u2013 and Byron sat on pole last weekend and has improved his Cup results on a near weekly basis. All four Hendrick drivers are ranked among the Playoff-eligible 16 heading into Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/PR1_MENCS_Bowman_053119.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

While Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske have combined for 12 victories through the season\u2019s opening 13 races \u2013 this Hendrick quartet has shown itself ready to arrive at the victory party. And Bowman, in particular, has quickly established his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 a weekly contender as of late.<\/p>\n

He comes to Pocono, Pa. fresh off his best ever finish at the historically tough speedway \u2013 a third place in the late summer race last year. At the time, that third place run was the best finish in his four fulltime Cup seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we had a really strong day at the second race here last year,” Bowman allowed. \u201cThe package is so different that I don\u2019t think there is much we can really transfer over. I don\u2019t think you\u2019ll be wide open, but it\u2019s going to be very little lifting and not a lot of brakes. Everything is going to be very different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to see how it\u2019s going to drive. I like new and different things, so I\u2019m looking forward to that.”<\/p>\n

Bowman\u2019s three top fives through 13 races already equals his career-best for a single season \u2013 set last year. Plus, he has four top 10s. And right now, he has plenty of momentum and confidence to compete with some of the best in the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Alex Bowman showed up in the Pocono Raceway Media Center feeling as confident and optimistic as he has in his young career. The 26-year old is coming off the best four-race stretch he\u2019s ever turned in \u2013 including three consecutive runner-up finishes at Talladega, Dover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":26282,"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":[491,16,605,252],"class_list":["post-26279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-nascar","tag-pocono-400","tag-pocono-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6PR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20834,"url":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/29\/nascar-sunday-pocono-notebook\/","url_meta":{"origin":26279,"position":0},"title":"NASCAR: Sunday Pocono Notebook","author":"racedaysaeditor","date":"July 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Reid Spencer,\u00a0NASCAR Wire Service Kevin Harvick\u2019s Pocono race was eventful\u2014and disappointing LONG POND, Pa. \u2013 Even the drivers who beat him to the checkered flag acknowledged that Kevin Harvick had the fastest car in Sunday\u2019s Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway. 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