Alex Bowman suffered a fractured vertebra on Tuesday night in a sprint car race and is expected to miss three to four weeks of NASCAR competition. Bowman was injured at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. He was treated locally for a compression …
Alex Bowman suffered a fractured vertebra on Tuesday night in a sprint car race and is expected to miss three to four weeks of NASCAR competition.
Bowman was injured at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. He was treated locally for a compression fracture and evaluated Wednesday morning in Charlotte. Josh Berry will drive the No. 48 Chevrolet in Bowman’s absence.
“We’re relieved Alex is home, in good spirits, and getting world-class treatment,” said Rick Hendrick. “Giving him ample time and the foremost resources to heal is our top priority. He’s having a tremendous season, and the No. 48 is at the top of its game.
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“We know what Josh is capable of in the race car and that Blake [Harris, crew chief] and the team will continue operating at a high level until Alex is ready to return. He has our full, unequivocal support.”
Bowman leads the Cup Series with a 10.3 average finish. Through the first 10 races, Bowman sat ninth in the championship points standings.
Hendrick Motorsports will request a playoff waiver for Bowman.
“Last night I was involved in an on-track incident while racing and fractured a vertebra,” said Bowman. “First, I want to let everyone know I’m feeling OK. My focus is now on healing and resting. Being out of the car is never an update any driver wants to make. I’m thankful to Josh Berry and Hendrick Motorsports for stepping up to the plate and I know the entire Ally Racing team will give it their all these next few weeks.
“I’ll be doing everything I can at home to help the team and ensure my recovery is as quick as possible to get back in the 48 car soon.”
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron brought opposite attitudes to Bristol Motor Speedway after a second inspection penalty in three weeks. The two teams were penalized by NASCAR after they had their cars, the No. 48 and No. …
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron brought opposite attitudes to Bristol Motor Speedway after a second inspection penalty in three weeks.
The two teams were penalized by NASCAR after they had their cars, the No. 48 and No. 24, taken to the R&D Center for further inspection after last weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway. During the teardown, a violation was found in the greenhouse of both cars.
Both teams lost 60 points and five playoff points. The penalty knocked Bowman from the points lead.
“Man, I just drive the thing,” Bowman said. “We’ve got the best average finish of the year, and obviously having a good starting position was good last week, and we’re not leading points anymore, but all I can do is keep performing how we have been and trying to be better each and every week and do my job.”
Bowman has the best average finish of the series and the most top-10 finishes. Given that, he’s been focused on the positives and said it outweighs all the negatives around his team.
He did, however, say the penalty would be frustrating should he not win the regular season championship by that point margin. His dry sense of humor showed when asked about his and Byron’s cars being the ones chosen for inspection after Hendrick Motorsports won their appeal from the L2 penalty issued last month.
“It’s a random inspection, man,” Bowman said. “It’s completely random. Just chances got us there.”
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Hendrick Motorsports was penalized in early March for modified hood louvers on all four cars. The organization immediately filed an appeal and repeatedly insisted they shouldn’t have been in that position because the single-source suppliers are not providing the correct parts.
The National Motorsports Appeals Panel rescinded the 100-point penalty to all four Hendrick Motorsports teams the week going into Richmond. Kyle Larson then won the Richmond race, while NASCAR took Byron and Bowman’s cars. Then came the second penalty earlier this week.
“It’s suboptimal, right?” Bowman said of two penalties. “But it doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s my job to drive the race car and perform at the highest level that I’m capable of behind the wheel, and I feel like we’ve had a good start to the year and just running as well as we have has got me feeling pretty good about things.
“It’s the best start to the season that I’ve had in my career, so I’ve been enjoying that. I’m not frustrated. I feel like my team — we did a really good job of overcoming the first one and staying plugged in and not letting it get to us, and I’m confident we can do that throughout the second one as well.”
Humorous moods were not shared all around, though. During his media availability, Byron, who rarely shows frustration, was short and clear with his answers, very much not amused.
“I feel like they could take all the cars to the R&D Center, so I don’t understand it,” Byron said of what happened last week. “But I’m not happy.”
On whether he believes it was really random that NASCAR chose his and Bowman’s cars inspection: “You tell me. It doesn’t look very random, does it?”
Asked if he feels there is a stain on his team or organization after two penalties in the span of a few weeks, Byron said, “It’s not a stain for us. We don’t really look outside of our team. Our team has been great this year, and we’ll keep it going.”
He followed, “It’s been great; love my job,” when asked about the atmosphere around Hendrick Motorsports with everything that’s happened the last few weeks.
And given that he’s yo-yoed up and down the point standings with 100 points taken and given back and 60 points taken away this week, he summed the conversation up with a simple “I don’t have anything good to say.”
Welcome back to the NASCAR Cup Series championship points lead, Alex Bowman. “Definitely glad to have the point lead,” Bowman said Saturday at Richmond Raceway. He jumped back atop the standings earlier this week when the National Motorsports …
Welcome back to the NASCAR Cup Series championship points lead, Alex Bowman.
“Definitely glad to have the point lead,” Bowman said Saturday at Richmond Raceway.
He jumped back atop the standings earlier this week when the National Motorsports Appeals Panel amended the L2 penalty NASCAR levied against Hendrick Motorsports last month. NASCAR officials confiscated the hood louvers off all four cars after practice at Phoenix Raceway, ruling the organization had modified the single-source supplied parts.
In addition to 100-point penalties and losing 10 playoff points, all four Hendrick Motorsports crew chiefs were suspended four races and fined $100,000. Bowman had taken the point lead after the Phoenix race, but it only lasted a few days before the penalty knocked him to 23rd place.
Before the appeal was heard Wednesday, Bowman sat 16th in the standings after the Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas events. The points were the most critical variable of the penalty, NASCAR officials feeling that it is a “strong deterrent” to violations.
While the panel noted the organization “violated the Rule(s),” the points – championship and playoff – were given back to each Hendrick team. The suspensions and fines stood.
“For me, it’s just my job to drive the race car,” Bowman said when asked what his expectation of the appeal was. “I was just focused on doing the best I could every week and making up the points that we had lost. Happy to get them back, but for me, just trying to drive the race car the best I can and maximize each and every week.”
It is the first time Bowman has led the point standings in his Cup Series career.
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He currently leads the 2023 field in top-10 finishes (five) and is tied with three other drivers for the most top-five finishes (three). And even though Bowman and the No. 48 team haven’t won a race, his average finish of 7.0 is also series-leading over Kyle Busch’s 9.0. They are the only two Cup Series drivers with an average finish in the single digits.
“Execution” is what Bowman said his team is doing right through the early part of the season.
“We’ve maximized our bad days,” he said. “We struggled a little bit at Phoenix but still ended up in the top 10. At Atlanta, if the last lap goes a little different, then we finish in the top 10 there, too. I feel like just maximizing our bad days and maximizing each little part and piece of everything throughout the races.
“This is a small sample size. It feels good to be leading points and to have this season that we’re having so far. We’re six races in and so much can change. We’re trying to continue that each and every week to keep that going.”
Through the penalty, Bowman’s team has missed a beat. Although crew chief Blake Harris has missed the last two races and will miss Richmond and the Bristol dirt event, there has been a familiar voice in Bowman’s ear: Greg Ives, whom Bowman worked with for five years, is the interim crew chief.
“I think Greg’s done a great job,” said Bowman. “It’s kind of funny how it worked; he came back in a hurry. It’s been fun working with Greg. Obviously, I’ve enjoyed that for a long time, and I’m glad to be working with him.”
Bowman starts from the pole at Richmond (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET, FS1) after rain canceled qualifying. Being the point leader is a part of the metric that helped give Bowman the top spot.
Alex Bowman will start from the pole at Richmond Raceway for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race after rain canceled Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions. Bowman, who moved back into the points lead this week when the Hendrick Motorsports teams …
Alex Bowman will start from the pole at Richmond Raceway for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race after rain canceled Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.
Bowman, who moved back into the points lead this week when the Hendrick Motorsports teams had their points reinstated by the appeals panel, starts from the top spot through the metric — a weighted combination of the driver’s fastest lap and finish in the previous race, owner race finish, and owner points position.
“Pit stall selection, I think, is probably the biggest thing,” Bowman said of being on the pole after getting his 100 points reinstated from the Hendrick Motorsports appeal of the hood louvers earlier this week. “You’d probably still have a pretty good pit stall selection fifth, though. So, not a huge difference, but obviously, having clean air at the start is important.
“Hopefully, we’ll take advantage of a good pit pick and have a good solid day. This has been a hard place for me to get ahold of in the past, even with a win. We’ll just try to maximize the day and keep chipping away at it.”
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Bowman finished eighth in the spring race at Richmond a year ago, but his average finish at Richmond is 19.6.
“It’s been tough,” Bowman said. “We’ve had good days here and then we’ve had really bad days. You have a good day here and I’ve left, like last spring or the race that we won, and I’m like, ‘Man, I know exactly what I need and I know the feel that I want to have.’ And then, come back in the fall and be confused and can’t find that and can’t get the race car to do the same thing and feel the same way.
“It’s just been a little more hit and miss than we want to be, but I think identified some things that can help me, and hopefully, we’ve gone in the right direction with the race car and will be strong tomorrow.”
Bowman will be joined on the front row by Kyle Busch, who is a six-time winner at Richmond.
William Byron starts third, Ross Chastain starts fourth, and Tyler Reddick fifth. Reddick enters Richmond off a win at Circuit of The Americas with his new 23XI Racing team.
Austin Cindric starts sixth, Chris Buescher starts seventh and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. starts eighth. Kyle Larson starts ninth, and Kevin Harvick starts 10th.
Denny Hamlin starts 11th at one of his home racetracks. Hamlin is the defending race winner.
Back in the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, Josh Berry starts 30th. Sunday will be Berry’s fourth start substituting for the injured Chase Elliott.
Anthony Alfredo makes his first start in the No. 78 for Live Fast Motorsports at Richmond. Alfredo starts 35th.
Chandler Smith makes his Cup Series debut in the No. 13 for Kaulig Racing. Smith brings up the rear of the field in 37th.
Rain also washed out Xfinity Series practice and qualifying at Richmond. The inclement weather is expected to clear out Saturday afternoon and the forecast looks good for the rest of the weekend.
These looks are definitely going to stand out on the track.
Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is getting a new primary paint scheme for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. Actually, he’s getting two.
And they’re both stunning.
The No. 48 car will continue featuring the vibrant purple and pink colors fans have been accustomed to since primary sponsor Ally Financial teamed up with Hendrick Motorsports in 2019, back when Jimmie Johnson was the car’s driver.
But this time, there’s a fun duality to the looks with “day and night” paint schemes, which, per Ally, were designed by Caroline Fogle, the director of creative design at NASCAR.
The day paint scheme features a dark purple hood that fades into pink, purple and turquoise streaks across the body into a mostly white rear, bumper aside. The night scheme follows a similar pattern, but black is the dominant color with streaks of color breaking it up, starting on the hood and continuing back into a mostly black rear.
This was a wild, once-in-a-lifetime kind of ride in the driver’s seat.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Not going to lie, I was a little terrified.
The last time I had driven a stick shift was more than a decade ago, and I repeatedly stalled out in the middle of a busy East Lansing street. That’s all I could think about as I stood on pit road at Daytona International Speedway, dressed in a firesuit and about to climb into a NASCAR stock car.
In the driver’s seat. By myself. On the 2.5-mile track, NASCAR’s second-biggest oval that’s home to the Daytona 500.
Thanks to the NASCAR Racing Experience, for eight minutes Thursday, I had a license to turn laps in a race car on the giant iconic NASCAR track.
The day before, I asked driver Alex Bowman for tips, advice, anything that might help.
“Floor it,” the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver said. “That’s really the only advice you need to know. And if you don’t floor it, you have failed your team, so you better floor it.”
Oh, god.
(Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)
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As I waited for my turn on pit road, my mind furiously ran through what I remembered of the detailed notes I took during a brief how-to and safety training session.
I’ll have a spotter; just listen and do what he says. Push the button on the steering wheel and hold it to talk to him. Constant throttle, don’t lift in the corners.
The leader of the instructional session said, “All you gotta do is go fast, turn left and not hit nothing.” And while he was helpful and answered my many follow-up questions, I still felt not at all qualified or prepared to pilot a race car.
“Trust the car,” he said. “Trust your instincts.”
Except, my instincts were limited having never surpassed 100 miles per hour in a passenger car and with subpar stick-shift experience.
Helmet on and firesuit zipped up, I climbed through the driver’s window of a No. 43 Chevrolet — a car number synonymous with seven-time NASCAR champ Richard Petty — and immediately realized the shifter was not my biggest concern.
Comfortably in my seat, my feet were were practically in a different zip code than the clutch, brake and gas pedals.
Luckily, the NASCAR Racing Experience was prepared for a driver like me, providing not one but two cushions to ensure I could reach the pedals while my spotter, Albert, introduced himself over the radio.
It was green flag time. My heart felt like it was pounding through my ears, overtaking Albert’s final instructions.
Focus. Breathe. Don’t wreck.
My left foot pushing deep onto the clutch with the car already in fourth gear, a van came up behind me and gave me a literal push off pit road. Albert told me when I was up to speed and then to get my foot off the clutch and hit the gas as I merged onto the track headed into Turn 1.
This wasn’t a new stock car by any means — and definitely not the Next Gen one making its debut in the Daytona 500 — but man, it was fast. One instinct I was told not to trust was lifting into the corners, so I didn’t. Or tried not to.
Holy [expletive].
Daytona’s 31-degree banking in the turns hits harder when you’re the driver and not the passenger. And as Albert offered words of encouragement and instructions, I felt like I got the hang of it after just one lap, but it’s monumentally harder than it looks — by a lot. And I wasn’t the only car out there.
Spotting me from above the track, Albert said I had a good line and to stick with it at 4,000 RPMs. He liked what he was seeing and told me to “keep digging,” so I did that too. Bowman’s advice echoed in my mind, and I wanted a fast lap average, so I pushed deeper into the gas pedal.
I maxed out at 145.79 miles per hour.
(NASCAR Racing Experience)
The speed was thrilling, intoxicating and even addictive once I settled in and felt in control. No wonder drivers are obsessed with speed. Of course, they need a fast car to win races, but I almost instantly understood how easily driving a race car could transform someone into an adrenaline junkie.
I could have kept going for a few more laps, but the next thing I knew, my eight minutes on track were done.
I crossed the start-finish line on the frontstretch, and Albert said it was my “checkered flag” time, signaling it was my last lap and to dip off the track onto the apron for one more time around before hitting pit road.
A sweaty mess, I climbed out of the car and took my helmet off, realizing a newfound respect for the drivers who do this for hours and hundreds of miles with 39 other cars out there inches away from each other. They are undeniably athletes with the strength and endurance required just to keep up.
No wonder they’re so eager to get back behind the wheel time and time again. Now, I am too.
Denny Hamlin on his frustration with Alex Bowman, his haters and his championship hopes.
PHOENIX — Denny Hamlin was greeted by a chorus of boos as he gave his post-race interview after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Late in the race, Hamlin and eventual winner Alex Bowman were fighting for the lead and made contact on the track, sending Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota for a spin before he ultimately finished 24th. And then, while still in the car, Hamlin confronted Bowman on the track, interrupted the No. 48 Chevrolet driver’s victory celebration and flipped him off. And then called him “an absolute hack” in the pit road interview.
But between the boos and controversy and competing Sunday at Phoenix Raceway for his first NASCAR championship, Hamlin embraces it all and said: “My life is chaos, and I thrive under chaos.”
He even welcomes the boos.
“Rather be booed than ignored,” Hamlin said Thursday. “The moment you’re ignored, it’s bad news. You’re on your way out. … It’s just fuel for me. My tank is absolutely full with motivation.”
Martinsville on Sunday wasn’t the first time Hamlin angered fans at the Virginia short track. Most notably, during the 2017 Martinsville playoff race, he wrecked Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s reigning most popular driver who’s also competing against Hamlin for the title.
Fans weren’t too happy about that, but Hamlin said popularity among them doesn’t matter to him “because it doesn’t correlate to common sense.”
Denny Hamlin explains why he was so angry at Martinsville and the fan reaction after he got crashed. Also some thoughts on Harvick-Elliott: pic.twitter.com/q17igj1HwZ
“We were the guys that were crashed, and we were booed?” he continued. “I’m confused. What’s going on? Obviously, people were passionate about their driver, which, that’s OK. But, honestly, it doesn’t make any sense in the grand scheme of what’s actually going on. It’s just bitter fans from half a decade ago. They just cannot get over it.”
However, Hamlin did credit Elliott for handling the weight of his popularity “really, really well.”
But, the No. 11 driver said: “As soon as you do something negative towards someone who is very popular, you will forever have that kind of badge on your uniform.”
Hamlin also brought up the issue of respect on the track with how he felt Bowman raced him. Bowman was a playoff driver but had been eliminated before the Martinsville race. Hamlin said Bowman “just didn’t respect my position” and is still mad at him for racing with “a lack of situation awareness,” as the No. 11 team was still competing for a spot in the Championship 4.
Of course, Hamlin and his team still advanced to the title race, but that was no guarantee. And he pointed to the feud between Elliott and Kevin Harvick, which developed early in the playoffs over how the two raced each other. It then escalated at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval race when Harvick punted Elliott’s car, which smacked the wall.
“There was controversy a few weeks ago, right?” Hamlin said. “And eventually, one of the drivers said, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m done taking your [expletive], I’m going to crash you.’ I think that that probably needs to happen a little bit more often to get some of the respect back.
“Obviously, NASCAR’s not going to police the stuff. This is stuff that certainly fuels popularity. The drivers have to get back to self-policing I think. That probably is going to have to come through the hard way.”
Although there were no official penalties, NASCAR officials did intervene after the Roval race and threatened Harvick’s and Elliott’s teams with “serious consequences” if their on-track feud didn’t cease, the Associated Press reported.
As far as this weekend’s championship race goes, Hamlin said he has a business-as-usual approach and just wants to have fun and win his first title. But the competition is steep, and he has little doubt that at some point, he and the other title contenders — Elliott, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. — will be running 1-2-3-4.
Hamlin has had a successful, storied career with 16 full-time Cup Series season and 46 wins, including three Daytona 500s (2016, 2019, 2020), but a championship has continued to elude him. He’s arguably the most successful NASCAR driver ever without a title on his resume.
And while Hamlin obviously wants to win on Sunday, he said he’s “at peace with whatever the result is.”
“Certainly this year, I’ve just been more comfortable in general with who I am, the accomplishments that we’ve had,” Hamlin said. “I’ve accomplished way more than I ever would have imagined, for sure.
“I’m content, and I’m at peace with, like, myself and my career. I could quit on Monday — maybe I will, maybe I won’t — and be happy with everything I’ve done.”
Denny Hamlin was furious with Alex Bowman after Sunday’s NASCAR race at Martinsville.
Welcome to FTW’s NASCAR Feud of the Week, where we provide a detailed breakdown of the latest absurd, funny and sometimes legitimate controversies and issues within the racing world.
With less than 10 laps to go in the scheduled 500-lap race at the Virginia short track, Hamlin — a playoff driver who was fighting for a spot in the final Championship 4 — was leading the field with Bowman — a playoff driver who was previously eliminated — chasing him down.
With just seven laps left, Bowman was on the inside of Hamlin in an attempt to pass for the lead, and his No. 48 Chevrolet got loose and made contact with Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota.
Hamlin spun out and lost the lead, along with several positions. And while Bowman won his fourth race of the 2021 season, Hamlin finished 24th but still advanced to the Championship 4 to compete for a title next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
When the race was over and Bowman returned to the frontstretch to celebrate, Hamlin parked his car in front of Bowman’s to cut him off just in front of the finish line. Bowman drove around Hamlin, but then Hamlin hit and pushed the nose of Bowman’s car, and he flipped off the No. 48 driver.
Over the team radio, Hamlin was reminded to think of the “big picture,” which was surely his team cautioning him not to do anything dumb that would warrant a penalty from NASCAR or impeded their championship hopes. And eventually, Hamlin drove away.
During Bowman’s on-track interview with NBC Sports, he said the contact wasn’t intentional and explained he got loose and couldn’t do anything to avoid Hamlin’s car.
“I hate doing it. Obviously, it’s not — I don’t want to crash somebody. I just got in, got loose underneath him and spun him out. … I’m not trying to drive underneath there and crash the guy. I got under him fair, under him clean. I just got sideways underneath him, spun him out. Hate to do that. Obviously unintentional. Part of short-track racing.”
Hamlin’s post-race interview went a little bit differently, and as the crowd roared with a booing soundtrack, the No. 11 driver slammed Bowman. Hamlin said to NBC Sports:
“He’s just a hack. He’s just an absolute hack. He gets his ass kicked by his teammates every week and just, he’s [expletive] terrible. He’s just terrible, and he sees one opportunity and he takes it. But obviously, he’s got the fastest car every week, and he runs 10th. So he didn’t want to race us there. We had a good, clean race. I moved up as high as I could on the race track to give him all the room I could, and he still can’t drive.”
But what happened between Bowman and Hamlin just seems like a hard-racing situation. It also seems like Hamlin will have to let this feud go either way if he wants to stay focused on trying to win his first championship next Sunday at Phoenix.
In addition to Kyle Larson — who entered the Martinsville race with a spot in the final Championship 4 locked up — Elliott, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. advanced to the title race.
Alex Bowman deadpanned about his muted celebration after winning the first of two NASCAR races at Pocono this weekend.
Alex Bowman took the checkered flag Saturday in the first race in NASCAR’s doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway, calling it “the strangest win [he’s] ever been a part of.”
On the last lap of the Pocono Organics CBD 325, Bowman was ready to settle for second place behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, who was racing toward a fourth consecutive victory. Larson passed Bowman for the lead with five of 130 total laps to go at the track nicknamed the “Tricky Triangle.”
Bowman said he was resigned and was apologizing to his team over the radio on the final lap when Larson’s left front tire went flat, sending him into the wall and opening the door for Bowman to take the lead in Turn 3 and win.
“I hate to win one that way, but hell yeah, I’ll take it,” 28-year-old Bowman said immediately after the race during his on-track interview.
During his post-race press conference, the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver somewhat comically expressed his disappointment over not being able to celebrate his third win of the season the way he wants to.
With a second Pocono race set for Sunday — the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN) — Bowman had to protect his winning car and rest up, and that means a significantly more muted celebration compared with a typical race weekend.
And with his deadpan tone, Bowman sounded so sad about it.
Alex Bowman was apologizing to his team right before he took the lead on the final lap and then couldn’t celebrate the way he wanted. Bowman: “This is the strangest win I have ever been a part of.” pic.twitter.com/R0ku8z91B0
“I don’t really know what to think. This is the strangest win I’ve ever been a part of. I thought I was running second, which was still going to be a good day for us with kind of how we struggled throughout the course of the day. But then he blows a tire. We win.
“Can’t do a burnout because I’ve gotta race the car tomorrow. I typically stand on the roof of the car; can’t do that because I’ve gotta race the car tomorrow. I typically drink all the beers; can’t do that because I’ve gotta race the car tomorrow.
“I have to be WAY more responsible than I really wanna be right now, so it’s definitely been a unique win. I’ve never been in a situation like that.”
He added:
“Here I’m apologizing to my guys, we come out with a win. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s pretty interesting to be on the other side of it. I’ll take it. I’ve had my fair share of bad luck over the course of my career. Hence the whole ‘Bad Luck Bowman’ thing.”
Maybe that’s all behind me and it was just in preparation for this great luck that we have right now. Yeah, I’ll take it.
Looks like Bowman will have to quietly celebrate his fifth career win with some Uncrustables instead. Or, at least until he gets through Sunday’s race.
This season, Bowman also has victories at Richmond Raceway and Dover International Speedway.
It was Dale Jr. vs. Jeff Gordon in a blind fan vote for the best paint scheme design, and Earnhardt won.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon faced off with dueling paint schemes as their designs competed for Alex Bowman’s ride at Nashville Superspeedway on June 20, and Earnhardt came out on top.
The two retired Hendrick Motorsports drivers each designed a paint scheme for Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet, and since May, fans have been voting on social media for the best look.
However, it was a blind vote rather than a popularity contest, so fans had no idea if they were voting for Earnhardt’s or Gordon’s paint scheme.
With the Neon Lights scheme versus Music Row scheme, Dale Jr.’s Neon Lights design came out on top. And that’s what Bowman’s car for the Ally 400 at Nashville will look like.
Neon Lights (top) and Music Row (Courtesy of Ally Racing)
Both designs are clearly fabulous, but without knowing who designed it, fans liked Earnhardt’s more.
About the Neon Lights scheme, Dale Jr. previously said the “tough part” of coming up with a design was building on the designs Jimmie Johnson raced with in the No. 48 car before retiring from NASCAR at the end of the 2020 season and jumping to the IndyCar Series.
