Bowman fights through pain to snatch strong fourth place in Mexico City

A week ago, Alex Bowman went through a head-on crash he said registered over 50G. He was evaluated for back pain during the week and Hendrick Motorsports put Anthony Alfredo on standby in Mexico City if Bowman was unable to compete in the inaugural Cup Series race.

Bowman did run Sunday’s race. Not only did he run the race – and the weekend – but he finished fourth, the first top-10 finish for his team in over a month.

“I think running well probably made it easier than it could have been,” Bowman said of dealing with the pain. “I’m just proud of the whole Ally [No.] 48 team. I put us behind this week – in full transparency, I couldn’t walk on Wednesday, so I missed all my sim stuff, I missed all my meetings just trying to get back going and had a lot of help from a lot of people to fix whatever was going on, and thankfully enough I was able to run all the laps this weekend.

“Honestly, my goal was to just come here and make all the laps and to end up with a top five. I’ll definitely take it. I’m proud of Blake and all the guys, and wish I wouldn’t have burned the tires off it so bad at the end but we were pretty decent.”

Bowman went head-on into the Turn 1 wall at Michigan International Speedway when his car was clipped by Cole Custer last weekend. The impact also lifted the rear wheels, putting Bowman through another impact when it set back down. He climbed out and walked away from the crash, but said at the time it was probably the biggest hit he'd experienced.

Heading into the Mexico City event, pain was emanating from his back and into his right leg. Prime Video reported Bowman had a heating pad wrapped around himself before the start of Sunday’s race.

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It was a quiet day for the No. 48 after he qualified 29th, but his car was one of a few that made it out of the 15-turn road course unscathed, and he found himself in contention in the final stage after the last caution flew on lap 65.

Bowman made his final pit stop on lap 63. He restarted in the second row behind eventual winner Shane van Gisbergen and initially took the runner-up spot when the race restarted. He never mounted a challenge on van Gisbergen, however, and faded to the final spot on the podium in the final laps.

“It feels good to get this No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team a run that they deserve,” Bowman said. “We’ve had a lot of fast race cars and just had days that haven’t gone our way. We’ve had issues and there’s been times that I’ve crashed the car, so to get them a good run after everything this week and how hard they’ve had to work is great. Just really appreciate all of their support and glad we could get a top-five finish.”

In the three weeks leading into the Mexico City event, Bowman finished 29th or worse. The road courses, however, continue to be areas where he and his team shine. Bowman finished ninth at Circuit of The Americas, which was the first road course race of the season before Mexico. The next road course, or street course, is Chicago where he’s the defending winner.

“I feel like road course racing has become a strong suit for the No. 48 team,” Bowman said. “I feel like the strategy that we’ve had has been great. Going to slicks there pretty early and getting back positions that way, we’ve done that a couple of times and it makes my job easy from there. So yeah, I think we have a shot at a win. Really, going to Pocono, we have a shot there too. We ran second or third there last year. Just excited to get things pointed in the right direction.”