Alfredo grateful but tempering excitement over Hendrick Cup race opportunity

Anthony Alfredo is racing in the NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix Raceway, driving the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. But while excited about the opportunity, he's not excited about the reason why he’s behind the wheel.

Alex Bowman, the team’s primary driver, has been sidelined after a vertigo diagnosis, which came after he was unable to complete last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas. Alfredo, the simulator driver for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, is the next man up and naturally, many have asked how it feels to get an opportunity with one of the best teams in the series.

“I’m not excited that I have to fill in for someone who’s not able to be in their own race car this weekend,” Alfredo said. “But it is, of course, a huge opportunity for me to go out there and do a good job and maybe turn some heads. But I don’t even feel like I have to prove anything to anybody. Honestly, I don’t think they would have picked me if they didn’t think I could do it. So, it’s not about that. I think it’s more about going out there and just doing what’s asked of me and doing a good job behind the wheel filling in.

“But it’s certainly exciting. A big moment for me.”

The good news is that Alfredo and Bowman are similar inside the race car, which makes it easier for the race team to adjust from one driver to the other. And during the times when the two have shared the simulator, Alfredo didn’t have to move the pedals and steering wheel from where Bowman had set them. Alfredo is also wearing one of Bowman’s fire suits this weekend at Phoenix.

Alfredo’s work in the simulator has established a relationship with all four Hendrick Motorsports teams, and that means they know how he communicates. He’s been doing the simulator work for four years now, and he drives it every day during the week to go through every possible setup and adjustment a team might make.

“That makes the transition a lot easier, for sure, because I have a lot of laps here,” Alfredo said. “I have a tremendous amount of laps at every track, but with this being a championship race the past (six) years, I have more here than anywhere else. We honestly haven’t left any stone unturned, I’d say, as far as correlating from sim to reality and tuning the cars.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what that truly feels like now, but also applying all the things I’ve learned to the sim to this opportunity on the track. But there’s a whole lot of other aspects to it because we test in a controlled environment on the sim, and now I’ll be around other cars in traffic and of course executing the race as a whole.”

Sunday will be Alfredo’s 44th start in the Cup Series, which includes a full season in 2021 for Front Row Motorsports. He is now a full-time competitor in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Viking Motorsports, and doesn’t see his ride with Hendrick Motorsports as anything other than a fill-in role. He was adamant that it’s not an audition.

“I think my career has been challenging, as far as the on-track side of things,” Alfredo said. “Working with (Hendrick) as a sim driver has been a privilege and I take a lot of pride in what I do for them. It’s a lot of effort. I sit in a dark room with no windows all day during the week, but I choose to do it because I enjoy it and I like seeing them get better. I’ve always hoped that one day it could lead to something; maybe not like this, but just help my career get further along.

“So now I have that opportunity. I don’t want to take it for granted, so I’ll try to soak it in, even though it’s obviously been a little bit chaotic the past couple of days. But I feel like it’s everybody’s dream of driving for a team like Hendrick Motorsports and working with all the men and women that make it possible. So it’s going to be an awesome experience for me, and I look forward to the challenge that awaits.”