On playoff bubble, Bowman faces make-or-break weekend at Daytona

Alex Bowman has been working through a full slate of obligations this week and has not had a chance to think about the regular season finale Saturday night at Daytona.

But that’s a good thing.

“Honestly, this week has been so busy,” said Bowman when asked about his mindset for this week. “I did the ECU test yesterday. I’ve been running all over the Earth today. I have a bunch of meetings tomorrow that don’t have anything to do with Daytona. So, I’ve been a lot busier than a normal week, which, as much as I want to sit here and complain about it and say I want to focus on Daytona and not have to worry about all this other stuff, it’s probably a good thing.

“I am incredibly stressed out. Anyone who knows me knows I stress myself out over every situation. That’s just me. I can’t avoid it. Chili Bowl is my favorite week of the year, and I get stressed about that.”

The only other time Bowman can recall being in this position at this point in the season was 2018. But the regular season finale was not a superspeedway race.

Bowman and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are on the provisional playoff grid bubble with one last chance to make the postseason. However, there is also a scenario where Bowman can overtake Tyler Reddick in points, which would push the 23XI Racing driver onto the bubble and in danger of being pushed out of the postseason field if there were a new winner.

Reddick and Bowman are the only two drivers on the provisional playoff grid who have not won a race. The gap between the two drivers is 29 points.

“Headspace-wise, there is a lot that you can’t control at Daytona,” Bowman said. “I think for me, walking out of there Saturday night, as long as we maximized what we could, did the things that we can control correctly and didn’t mess it up on our side, whatever the result is, I’m sure we’ll have a shot at it. I feel like we’re plenty capable of winning a superspeedway race. We’re plenty capable of going and outpointing (Reddick). If we do our job correctly, the result at that point is what it is.

“We’re going to do everything we can on our side to go win that race and score the most points we possibly can and go make the playoffs. But we’ve done so much good this season, I don’t want to leave there and be like, 'Oh, this year is a total failure' if somebody gets a better push and wins on the last lap. Maybe we failed to exploit the system the correct way, but we’ve done a lot of really good things as a team, too.”

Bowman is the only Hendrick Motorsports driver who has not won this season. Only once in his tenure with the organization has Bowman failed to make the postseason (2023). An injury in the spring, after having led the point standings to begin the year, sidelined Bowman for three weeks. It put him into a must-win scenario to make the postseason, which he and the team were unable to do.

“Yeah, I feel like we should have won by now, and we’ve been close,” said Bowman when asked if it is unacceptable to be in this position as a Hendrick Motorsports driver. “Homestead, we were close. Richmond, we were close. I think we had a car very capable of winning Texas if we didn’t crash, which was totally out of our control. Kansas, we were capable of winning before we got damaged. So, we’ve had plenty of races that we’ve had winning cars. But unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out for us this season. We haven’t had that perfect day yet.

“That’s a tough question. I get so much of that, throughout the last couple of years especially, and it’s certainly frustrating because I think we’re doing a lot of really good things. But we’re going to do all we can to not have to answer that (after Saturday night).”

Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly indicated that Ryan Preece was the driver directly behind Bowman. In fact it is Chris Buescher. -Ed.