Alex Bowman is back in the NASCAR Cup Series after he missed three points-paying races with a fractured vertebra.
His immediate goal is simple – reignite the consistency that made him the points leader early in the season.
Prior to his injury in a sprint car crash, Bowman had the best average finish in the series at 10.3.
He and crew chiefs Blake Harris and Greg Ives hadn’t celebrated a win in the first 10 races, but the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team had been the most consistent overall with six top-10 finishes and three top-fives.
This streak went on a prolonged break as Bowman recovered, but now the team has to pick up where it left off in late April. So where do they start?
“Really, just trying to understand where we are going to pick up, right,” said Bowman.
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“Like, I haven’t – I ran some laps by myself in North Wilkesboro – but I haven’t raced.
“I haven’t really competitively driven a race car in a month. So just trying to understand where my rusty areas are going to be and where I’m still good.
“Lap time-wise, we were plenty competitive in our test, but that’s by yourself.”
The immediate challenge is the Coca-Cola 600 around Charlotte Motor Speedway, the longest race on the Cup Series schedule.
Bowman will have to complete 600 miles (965.60 kilometres) at a difficult track, and he will have to do so without the benefit of practice or qualifying after rainfall washed out both sessions.
“My challenge is going to be the fact that I sat on the couch for last month and wasn’t able to train,” said Bowman.
“I mean, there’s a lot of things that are going to be difficult to catch back up on, but yeah, I mean, I’m confident I’ll be fine. May not be the most fun, but I’ll be fine.”
The lack of qualifying means that Bowman will start buried near the rear of the field, having to work his way through traffic over the course of 600 miles.
This is not a simple task, but the seven-time Cup Series winner has no shortage of confidence in his ability to take care of business and put himself back above the playoff cutline.
“I have one of the best crew chiefs on pit road, the best race team on pit road, a top five best pit crew on pit road,” said Bowman.
“No reason we can’t accomplish it.
“So honestly, if I can drive the race car at the level that I think I’m capable of doing and we have a good car when we take off, there’s no reason we can’t win from 31st.
“I mean, I think for me, I want to make all the laps. I want to have a good, solid top-10 day coming back from breaking my back.
“But there’s no reason with our race team and our capabilities we can’t win from anywhere we start every week.”
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