"Excited to see what 2025 holds": Alex Bowman upbeat about starting the upcoming season strong with Rick Hendrick and Co. 

Alex Bowman's 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season didn't go as planned after his playoff run this year ended sooner rather than later. With a single win at the Chicago Street race in July that ended his 80-race winless streak, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had a rollercoaster of results throughout the season.

After missing out on the playoffs last season due to a back injury and an underwhelming start to the 2024 season, the 31-year-old also faced the heat from rumors of his uncertain future with Rick Hendrick-owned organization in the upcoming seasons. However, the speculations were shut down when he assured his fans of his return to the HMS ride.

Nevertheless, the 8-time Cup Series race winner didn't shy away from addressing his shortcomings and starting the 2025 Cup Series season strong.

During a conversation at the NASCAR Awards, the Tucson, Arizona native said:

"This year, it didn’t start the year great, but we turned it around pretty quickly. So yeah, I mean, I think we’ve done a lot of the right things. I think just kind of being on the other side of it, it definitely feels good."

Despite having only a single win, Bowman had a career-high 17 top-10s and had a streak of five top-10 finishes.

"Hopefully, we can start there as a baseline, right?" Bowman said. "I think that’s the biggest thing is trying to operate at that level to start and have that be our baseline and go up from there. So yeah, excited to see what 2025 holds. I think we did a really good job to end the season, and looking forward to it."

After a decent regular season, Bowman's disqualification in the round of 12 of the playoffs topped the list of disappointments for the Hendrick Motorsports star.

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Alex Bowman opened up after getting DQ from the 2024 Championship run

After qualifying based on points for the Round of 8, Alex Bowman was penalized for failing the post-race inspection in the final Round of 12 race at Charlotte Roval race in October.

In an interview with Toby Christie following the race, Alex Bowman provided insight into the possible cause of his failure to meet the minimum weight, which led to his disqualification by NASCAR officials. Bowman said:

"I didn't crash. That's the hardest I've ever hit anything in my life. Just a hard thing...these things have big roadblocks underneath them."

"Just how I was following, I think the 1 (Ross Chastain), I just couldn't see. I thought I was okay. Clearly, I was too far on the left. My mistake caused that for sure," he added.

As a result, Alex Bowman was relegated from the top 8 drivers for the next round, instead, Joey Logano, who was next in line and the eventual 2024 Championship winner, was given an opportunity to advance to the next round.