Jeff Gordon reaffirms confidence in Alex Bowman after Homestead: ‘This is our guy’

Alex Bowman had a chance at the win at the Straight Talk Wireless 400 on Sunday at Homestead, but he couldn’t hold off a late push from Kyle Larson. Still, he finished second.

But one fan noticed that Jeff Gordon seemed elated that Larson had passed Bowman and took home the win. The fan reached out on Twitter to ESPN’s Kelly Crandall to ask about that, and Crandall reassured that Gordon is still very supportive of Bowman.

Both Bowman and Larson are on Hendrick Motorsports. So it was a great day for the team.

During the winner’s press conference, Gordon spoke about making sure Alex Bowman knows he has full support behind him and the team is putting the pieces together for him. Blake Harris being hired as his crew chief a few years back was evidence of that.

“This is our guy,” Gordon said, per Crandall. “We’re happy to see [the 48] doing well.”

In addition to securing stage points in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 on Sunday, Alex Bowman took home plenty of points for a second-place finish. He continues to rank near the top of the Cup Series standings.

Bowman now has the leading points total behind the drivers that have won races already this season. He sits third in the standings with 205 points currently, 39 points behind leader William Byron.

Kyle Larson wins at Homestead

While Alex Bowman would have loved to take home the win on Sunday, he had to have been happy to see his teammate take it if he couldn’t. And Larson was quite deserving.

Another win at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Kyle Larson is climbing the all-time wins list at Hendrick Motorsports. With his win today, Larson has 24 wins at Hendrick Motorsports. He has 30 total wins in his Cup Series career. Only Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have won more races for Rick Hendrick in the last 41 years.

Everyone knew that Larson was going to be the driver to beat. He didn’t dominate. Ryan Blaney led the most laps. Bubba Wallace led the second most. But it was the 5 car who was leading on the last lap.

Two wins in three races this weekend. One Xfinity Series overtime away from a sweep.

This race was going to come down to a Hendrick driver. Larson had to battle with Alex Bowman late. They were both really good in this race tonight and showed a lot of that Hendrick power and speed. But it was the way they ran the wall that put them upfront.

On3’s Jonathan Howard also contributed to this report.