Alex Bowman 'excited' for upcoming races at Pocono and Richmond as playoffs loom

Living life on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs are concerned, Alex Bowman feels like he has a good chance in the next two weeks. It has to be tough for Bowman to deal with the pressure of making the NASCAR Playoffs after missing races for injury. Prior to getting hurt, Bowman was consistent. Ever since, it has been a struggle.

Ahead of the Pocono weekend, Alex Bowman has his eyes set on a win. At the very least, you have to have a massive points day and hope others don’t. At this point, it is basically win or don’t. That will determine if Bowman makes the playoffs.

Even with the pressure of almost being out of the points hunt in 20th place, Bowman remains confident. Driving that Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevy will do that for you.

“Yeah I think honestly anywhere we go with Hendrick Motorsports we feel like we have a chance to win,” Bowman said to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “Being two of my better race tracks, which is crazy to think about with how bad I was at Richmond for so long. I’m excited to go to those places.

“Really just, you know, I feel like last week even though we crashed and didn’t finish where we needed to, Atlanta was a step in the right direction as far as we ran strong all day and were putting a good race together. So if we can just get back to that, get back to running how we should I think we have a shot to win anywhere we go.”

Alex Bowman is 42 points behind the playoff cutoff with six races left in the regular season. How he views going into Pocono and Richmond, two tracks where he has wins in his career. pic.twitter.com/Ak8jeuz870

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 20, 2023

There is no doubt that Alex Bowman has missed chances. However, he’s also ben through a tough situation with a 60 points fine this season and his missed races.

Alex Bowman, a tale of two seasons

Really, you can break up the season into two sections for the 48 team. Before the injury and after the injury. Plain and simple that’s how it has broken down for Bowman and his team.

Alex Bowman was one of the most consistent drivers in the first ten races of the season. Those first seven were especially impressive. Bowman started the season with finishes of P5, P8, P3, P9, P14, P3, and P8 in those first seven starts. Bristol Dirt was a tough P29 and then Martinsville and Talladega were P11 and P13 finishes, respectively.

Following Dega was when Bowman suffered his injury during a sprint car event. That put him out for three races on the Cup Series schedule. As good as those first seven races were, the last seven have almost been just as bad. Since his return, Bowman has finished P12, P26, P15, P17, P37, P26, and P14.

Alex Bowman has wins at Pocono and Richmond to his name. Let’s see if he can make history repeat itself and find his way to victory lane when he most needs it.