Alex Bowman turned a quiet day at Circuit of the Americas into a fourth-place finish in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
“I feel we had a good weekend, overall, minus qualifying,” Bowman said. “All week, we’ve wanted our car to hang on to the rear tires longer and we fought that a little bit in the race still. I thought the second-to-last run we got it pretty good, and we short-pitted to try and get track position and came out right in the middle of a bunch of guys still on older tires and beat the rear tires up real bad on low air.”
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Bowman qualified 17th but had an average running position of ninth Sunday afternoon. The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team called Bowman to pit road for the final time under green flag conditions with 25 laps to go. It was a lap earlier than the leaders (Bowman was running fourth) and allowed him to leapfrog Ross Chastain during the pit cycle.
The field fully cycled through with 18 laps to go, and Bowman was second to teammate and eventual winner William Byron. But the damage had been done fighting through lapped traffic, and Bowman faded over the final laps.
“I just feel like I hurt my stuff for that last run pretty badly in those first two laps (after the pit stop),” Bowman said. “Bummed that happened, but we had a good Ally Camaro. I felt like we maximized everything aside from that little bit there.
“It sucks to not win here yet, but we’ve been really good, really consistently.”
Bowman has finished no worse than eighth in four starts at Circuit of the Americas. In the last three races, Bowman has finished inside the top five. He didn’t earn stage points Sunday as the team focused on track position for the end of the race, and it resulted in their second consecutive top-five result.
“I wouldn’t say I’m worn-out, I’m just bummed,” Bowman said. “I probably just got stuck out in traffic after our last pit stop. It was a bad spot that I had to run too hard on low air and beat the rear tires up. I kind of inched in on William (Byron) for a bit, but then the rear tires just went away. Yeah, I definitely had to manage it some. Definitely some tire fall off here.”
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon hopes the tide is turning for Bowman’s team after two solid weekends.
“Bowman, when he gets on a roll, he gets his confidence up, there’s no telling what they’re capable of doing,” Gordon said. “I’m really happy for them, two top fives in a row. They’d had a couple of rough weeks, so they needed this.
“Hendrick Motorsports is tough, right? Four of the top drivers and teams out there, and there’s a lot of pressure on you. If you’re winning, there’s pressure to continue. When you’re not winning or you’re not at the same level as your teammates, there’s a ton of pressure that you got to get there. I’m proud of him and Blake (Harris) the way they’ve been working hard together to get some good finishes. Now I can’t wait to see what they do next, as well.”