Tucson native, Ironwood Ridge HS alum Alex Bowman climbing as NASCAR Cup playoffs underway

HAMPTON, Ga. — Team Penske was perfect in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but Alex Bowman was undeniably next-best in what was a silently stunning performance by the 12th-seeded driver entering the Round of 16. Representing Tucson in the top NASCAR circuit’s postseason for the sixth time in seven years, the Ironwood Ridge High School alum finds himself in a favorable position entering a crucial two-week stretch.

Bowman began his quest for the Bill France Cup by wheeling his No. 48 Ally-sponsored Chevrolet to an 11th-place starting spot at Atlanta, but once the green flag waved on Sunday, the 31-year-old wasted no time charging his way to the front of the field and asserting himself as a legitimate threat for his second victory of the season.

While Penske teammates Austin Cindric and reigning champion Ryan Blaney swapped turns winning the opening two stages and claiming the runner-up spot, Bowman remained right on their heels, finishing third in each segment and racking up the second-most stage points with 16. In a race where track position was at a premium, the No. 48 team continued to execute on pit stops and kept their driver in the fight the entire afternoon.

Although Bowman amassed an impressive average-running position of fifth at Atlanta, he found himself mired in 13th with less than 10 laps to go, due to a flurry of late-race cautions and untimely inability to pass on restarts. Fortunately, two more incidents set up an overtime finish and presented the driver of the No. 48 with a pair of opportunities to redeem himself.

Coming to the finish line as the field wrecked behind him, Bowman battled for his seventh top-five finish of the season while tallying the second-most points among all drivers. Joey Logano may have walked away the big winner by locking himself into the Round of 12 with a trip to victory lane, but the Hendrick Motorsports hot-shot made major gains by jumping six spots in the playoff standings, now 27 points above the cutoff going into Watkins Glen International (N.Y.).

“I think it’s certainly good for us,” Bowman said. “Wanted to have a shot at the win there and unfortunately it just didn’t pan out for us. I got stuck on the bottom (lane) with like seven to go and lost a ton of track position. The last two restarts, everything went my way, but nothing went my way before that.

“Just needed to have a little better track position to try to fight forward, but glad it worked out. Really good points today going into Watkins Glen. I’ve been really bad there the last couple of years (but) we’ve been working really hard on being better there and I think we’re plenty capable of doing that.”

Exiting the largest wild card in the Round of 16, most teams can let out a sigh of relief as the circuit embraces a bit more normalcy in its annual trip to Watkins Glen. Seeing as Hendrick Motorsports has won the last five races at the 2.45-mile road course, one would expect Bowman to be ecstatic.

However, Bowman is the only driver in the four-car stable to be held winless at The Glen. Not only that, he’s failed to place above 14th (three times) in seven starts, finishing 23rd in his most recent attempt. But there’s still reason to believe the No. 48 team can change the script at the high-speed road course.

On top of implementing track limiters to avoid curb-cutting, Goodyear will be debuting a brand-new tire advertised to promote significant fall-off, which will result in a more level playing field and an entirely different race.

The Southern Arizona-born driver may not have had much luck throughout his career at the central New York track, but he’s established himself as a contender on road courses in the Next Gen car. Since 2022, Bowman has scored five top-five finishes on the left-and-right twisting tracks, including his win this year at the Chicago Street Course.

Bowman may have a silent — yet efficient — reputation, but he’s proven on numerous occasions that one should never count him out in the playoffs. In his five prior postseason appearances, he’s advanced into the Round of 12 every time, finishing as high as sixth in the standings back in 2020.

“We knew Atlanta was going to be what it is,” said Bowman’s crew chief, Blake Harris. “I felt confident about our package here, so we spent a lot of time on Watkins Glen. I think if you lay out all the road courses in general, Watkins Glen and Sonoma (California) haven’t particularly been the strongest for him statistically. I thought we had a shot to sit on the pole at Sonoma, and we ran top-five until strategy got all mixed around there.

“So I’m not expecting anything much different at Watkins Glen. I think our road course game in general for HMS has been really strong, so I think we’ll just need a similar day to go execute and see if we can be there at the end.”

The second race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the Go Bowling at the Glen, is Sunday at noon, with live broadcast coverage on USA Network, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).