Tucson-born Alex Bowman snags Chicago street race victory, snapping 80-race NASCAR Cup winless streak

Fighting his way through the darkness — both literally and figuratively — Bowman survived a stormy spectacle through the streets of the Windy City by holding off runner-up finisher Tyler Reddick and trusting in his second-year crew chief Blake Harris, who also scored his first win in 85 attempts calling races at the sport’s top level.

“For me just overcoming everything that’s happened in my life in the last two years, it’s been really difficult,” said the 31-year-old Bowman, who attended Ironwood Ridge High School in Oro Valley. “I broke my back (in a sprint car accident), had a brain injury, and we’ve kind of sucked ever since. You start to second-guess if you’re ever going to get a chance to win a race again.

“There’s a lot of noise and that makes it difficult for the team. I’m proud of my guys for being able to shut that out and work hard each and every week and have confidence in the decisions that we make and the race cars that we bring to the racetrack.

Much like its inaugural event, the Grant Park 165 began under damp conditions, forcing teams to weigh the options between ripping the 2.2-mile street circuit through Downtown Chicago on traditional, “slick” racing tires to maximize speed, or wet-weather tires to create more grip and stability through the 12 turns.

At the conclusion of Stage 1, Bowman, who started eighth, managed to finish sixth before heavy rains put a stop to the race for nearly two hours. With darkness fast approaching, NASCAR informed teams they could only race until 8:20 p.m. local time, in which the white flag would wave and drivers would have a two-lap dash to decide the winner.

After completing the second segment, it was determined there would only be 25 minutes left of daylight, eliminating the lap count to the advertised 75-lap distance and setting an unprecedented, timed countdown to the checkered flag.

With 12 minutes remaining, Bowman drove around Stage 2 winner and road-course ringer Joey Hand for the lead and never looked back as he cruised to his first victory since Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March of 2022 — a return over 850 days in the making.

“It means a lot to me to be able to overcome a lot and do something that I don’t think a lot of people here really would have thought this weekend that we could,” Bowman added. “As a human being, I’m just a dude trying to do my job the best I possibly can. I see everything that gets said about me. So, to be able to overcome what I’ve gone through and to end up back (in victory lane), it feels really good.”

Entering the Grant Park 165, Bowman was the only driver at Hendrick Motorsports unable to secure a victory in 2024. But the win all but locks him into the playoffs during the powerhouse organization’s 40th anniversary season. NASCAR’s playoff rounds start in early September, with the 2024 series champion eventually crowned at the season-finale at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale.

Opening up his ninth full-time campaign with a runner-up finish in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl, there was never a doubt in Bowman’s ability to be competitive.

With his win at Chicago, Bowman is now tied for the second-most top-10 finishes in the series with 11. With speed being evident, it was just a matter of putting a complete race together, which was possible with help from Harris atop the pit box.

In most cases, slick tires enable drivers to produce more speed, hence why drivers like Reddick, third-place finisher Christopher Bell and fellow Arizonan Michael McDowell of Phoenix (fifth) surged to the front in the closing minutes of the race.

Harris, favoring track position over the chance at running the leaders down, kept the wet-weather tires bolted onto the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro and instructed his driver to run through as many damp parts of the track as possible to keep Reddick at bay.

For once, wet-weather tires were the winning call, and one made with conviction from Harris.

“Over the last year and a half, we’ve been in position to win some races and we just hadn’t gotten there,” Harris said. “You go in every week … no matter what’s been thrown at us, or things that happened, or where we’re at in point scenarios, there’s no better answer than getting the win.

“For myself, I go to all the guys and I tell them, ‘Put the pressure on me. Let’s go to work. You do your job (and) we’re going to get it done.’ Eventually (you’ve) got to deliver on that,” Harris added. “I think they’ve delivered a lot and it was nice to finally be able to deliver the win. Really excited for Alex. I thought he drove a heck of a race today. I felt like we had speed all weekend, and it feels really good.”

Exiting arguably the largest unknown on the circuit, Bowman and Harris overcame multiple adversities to secure their first victory together in thrilling fashion. More importantly, Bowman now is in position make a run once the postseason starts for the sixth time in his career.

“These guys work so hard,” NASCAR Hall of Famer and Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon said. “It’s important that you gel and the chemistry comes and the effort’s there, but you’ve got to win at some point. You’ve got to win, not just because you’re at Hendrick Motorsports, it’s because it’s really hard to get the team where they need to be to compete at the highest level on a regular basis to make the playoffs, then compete at a high level in the playoffs.

“I think today was a huge day for both of these guys and the whole team. I couldn’t be more proud or happy for the whole group, because I know what kind of pressure that they’ve been feeling and it’s amazing for all of us now to have all four cars in the playoffs.”