1. Alex Bowman wins the Grant Park 165 NASCAR Cup Series race in Chicago, ending his 80-race drought.1. Alex Bowman wins the Grant Park 165 NASCAR Cup Series race in Chicago, ending his 80-race drought. 2. Bowman has secured a playoff spot for Hendrick Motorsports. 3. Blake Harris, Bowman’s new crew chief, earns his first Cup Series victory. 4. Despite speculation about his future with Hendrick, Bowman remains confident in his abilities. 5. Bowman’s win dispels rumors of being “on the hot seat” at Hendrick. 6. Bowman’s contract with Hendrick runs through the 2026 season. 7. After a concussion and back injury in 2022, Bowman has shown resilience in his return to racing. 8. Bowman’s victory is a testament to his determination and the strength of the Hendrick team. 9. With the playoffs approaching, Bowman and Harris can now focus on their postseason performance. 10. The win shows that Bowman has overcome his injuries and is a force to be reckoned with in the NASCAR Cup Series.
CHICAGO — Alex Bowman spent his 30th birthday in an Iowa hospital after breaking his back in a short-track accident. It was a tough moment, feeling like he had let everyone down.
That was only last year, and it already seemed a long time ago Sunday night.
Bowman is a NASCAR Cup Series winner again after holding off Tyler Reddick in a shortened Grant Park 165 on a rain-soaked street course in downtown Chicago. It was his first victory since March 2022 at Las Vegas and ended an 80-race drought.
“There’s a lot of emotions that go away because it’s been so hard,” Bowman said.
With his eighth Cup Series victory, Bowman became the last of four Hendrick Motorsports drivers to secure a playoff spot. He is the twelfth Cup driver to win this year, leaving four playoff spots open with six races remaining in the regular season.
It was also the first Cup win for Blake Harris, who took over as Bowman’s crew chief for the 2023 season.
Bowman has 11 top-10 finishes this year, but his winless drought had fueled speculation about his future with Hendrick. That all seemed to evaporate this weekend.
“I understand why people want to talk. … It’s a tough business,” said NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, a Hendrick driver. “When you’re with Hendrick Motorsports, you expect, especially when the other three have won, to be in the same category, and that hasn’t happened. Hopefully this dispels a lot of the rumors.”
Bowman’s contract with Hendrick runs through the 2026 season. He made it clear he thought the speculation about his future was overblown, but he certainly heard the conversation.
“I think you have to win races when you’re at HMS,” he said. “But nobody has made me feel like I’m on the hot seat. There’s never been a conversation with a person who has questioned anything. It’s all been about: what do you need, how can we help you, how can we support the team.”
Bowman is in his seventh full season with Hendrick. He earned his first Cup Series victory at Chicagoland Speedway in 2019. The Arizona native won again at Fontana in 2020, then earned a career-best four wins during a breakout performance in 2021.
But everything changed after he won in Las Vegas in March 2022. That same year, he was sidelined for five races after suffering a concussion in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway. Then last year, he had a back injury that kept him out of the three-point races and All-Star festivities.
“The concussion and then breaking my back right after I recovered from that and then also struggling a lot last year and getting a little lost, that was really tough,” he said.
As we entered Chicago, there was no sign that Bowman’s drought was about to end. He had an engine issue in New Hampshire, ending his day on the 144th of 305 laps. He finished 14th at Nashville Superspeedway last weekend.
“I think the speed has been there,” Harris said. “We’ve talked, we had an engine failure in Loudon and we had an engine failure here in Chicago last year. As we talk about those things, he’s like, man, as we’re in this battle for points, I’m like, we’re one race away from that, it doesn’t matter.”
That one race was Sunday, and now Bowman and Harris can take a closer look at what they can do in the playoffs.
“I think drivers, they come and they have accidents and sometimes you get hurt,” Gordon said, “and you find out how strong you are mentally and physically and how much you want to do it. Alex has had some serious injuries and he’s come back stronger each time, I think.”
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