June 24, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Alex Bowman has found an advocate in Ally

LEBANON, Tenn.—Last June, Alex Bowman signed a contract that will carry him through next year with Hendrick Motorsports.

Over the past five seasons, the 29-year-old racer has made a solid case to remain in the No. 48  Chevrolet through 2023 and beyond.

Not only has Bowman represented the Hendrick brand well over the last two years but he has developed a mutual admiration with his sponsor Ally that has allowed him to flourish on the track and off.

“It’s been really cool,” Bowman said. “They have been amazing to work with. I’m not going to lie to you, when Mr. Hendrick told me that I was driving the No. 48, I was super nervous. I didn’t know how it was going to go. I didn’t know anybody at Ally yet. I just didn’t know how it was going to go.

“It has been awesome. Everybody there has been awesome to work with. Anything that we’ve done—whether it’s the animal shelter stuff, the sprint car stuff, whatever they’ve been a part of—they’ve been amazing. For this weekend, kind of going all over Nashville, is going to be really cool. I’m just excited. They are always on their game. They do things the right way. They’re really fun to work with.”

Once again, Ally is the title sponsor for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway. The Ally colors can be seen all over Music City. But Bowman feels no additional pressure--just inspiration. He hopes to improve on his 14th-place finish in last year’s race.

“For them to have their name on everything there, I really want to run well and I want to get the Ally car in victory lane for that race; for any race, but just a little bit extra this weekend,” Bowman said. “There’s no pressure from Ally or anybody at Hendrick Motorsports, it’s just I want to run well for selfish reasons when it’s the Ally 400.”

Chevrolet has won eight of the first 16 races with the new Cup car. Bowman was the second Chevy driver to visit Victory Lane after holding off his teammate Kyle Larson at Las Vegas three races into the season. While he is currently ninth in the Cup standings with three top fives, nine top 10s, and an average finish of 12.1, Bowman always believes there is room for improvement.

“I don’t think we’re quite where we want to be,” Bowman said. “I think we’ve had a rough couple of weeks. Sonoma, we had a way better race car than where we finished. We got caught up when the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) spun on that last restart. Gateway wasn’t pretty for any of the HMS cars and I think we’ve got a little bit of work to do.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we come out after the week off and the little bit of a reset we’ve had. Hopefully, we’re really strong in Nashville. We struggled there last year, so there’s a lot of pressure from myself to run well and hopefully we’re good. I think a lot can change after a weekend off, so we’ll see where we stack up.”

Bowman isn’t the only Hendrick driver to struggle over the last five weeks. After winning five of the first 11 races, Hendrick Motorsports has posted just two top-five finishes since. For Bowman and a lot of drivers in the Cup paddock, the new car has presented its own set of challenges.

“I’m trying my best to figure it out,” Bowman said. “It’s definitely been a learning curve. It’s just different. At some places, it’s more different than we thought it would be; and at other places, it’s really good. So just trying to figure it out. Going to a lot of places that we haven’t been with it yet is still the biggest question mark. We don’t have a notebook to lean on, so just trying to learn the most we can the quickest that we can.

“If I could say what it was or what exactly we were fighting, we could fix it. I don’t think we’re bad by any means. I think we’re just not as great as we were at the beginning of the year. I think some other guys have just caught up and we’ve got to do our homework to get back ahead of the pack. We’re all working on it…there’s a lot of really smart people that are head down and working on making our race cars better each and every week.”