Alex Bowman set to enter the Round of 16 finale at Bristol as the highest-placed Hendrick Motorsports driver

Alex Bowman, the driver of Chevy #48 for Hendrick Motorsports, is having the best season this year. He is leading the playoff standings among his teammates. He was among the top 5 finishers at Atlanta Motor Speedway, securing fourth place. Now, the #48 driver is all set to dominate the last race of the playoffs.

Bowman is currently in fourth place in the playoffs rankings with a buffer of 41 points. He is presently the top Hendrick Motorsports driver on the list, followed by Chase Elliott in seventh place with 30 points. Kyle Larson is in ninth place with 26 points, and William Byron is in tenth place with 25 points.

Bowman has secured one win, 13 top-ten finishes, and seven top-5 finishes this season. The #48 driver aims to showcase his skills at Bristol Motor Speedway, the last playoff race. He has raced fifteen times on the track previously.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver's best finish at the track was this year. In March, Alex Bowman secured fourth place by starting the race in 29th position. Before that, he secured fifth place in 2021 after starting the race in eleventh place.

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Alex Bowman believes the #48 team "needs to do a lot of things better"

Alex Bowman sat for an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and opened up about the challenges that affected his recent race results. The past few races were not in his favor. The Chevy driver crashed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and their strategy didn't work out as expected.

The Hendrick Motorsports top scorer is also not happy with his performance at the Richmond Raceway, and even at Michigan, they had an accident. He compared his Darlington spring and fall races and highlighted that he finished eighth in the spring race and struggled to stay in the top 20 in the fall race.

"So we need to do a lot of things better, across the board, myself included," Alex Bowman said. [00:50]

However, after a few bad races, the Chevy driver had a top-5 finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He qualified in the eleventh position with a best time of 31.999 seconds and showcased his commanding attitude from stage one. He ended stage 1 in third place, earning eight points, and maintained the position in stage 2, securing an additional eight points.

By the end of the final stage, Alex Bowman ended the race in fifth place, securing 48 points and leading five laps on the track. In the 2024 season, the Chevy driver has only led 20 laps in 28 races. Even at Watkins Glen, he was in the top 20 once more and finished in 18th place.