“I would take the win over the pole”: HMS star Alex Bowman sets the tone for Daytona 500 ahead of the 2025 NASCAR season 

Hendrick Motorsport driver Alex Bowman's 2024 season didn't go as planned. But recently the latter has set a tone for the upcoming Daytona 500 race scheduled for February 16, 2025. He was featured in an interview with AP News and revealed his expectations for 'The Great American Race.'

Bowman debuted in the Cup Series almost a decade ago in 2014 under BK Racing, driving the #23 Toyota Camry. He then reserved a full-time seat with Hendrick Motorsports in 2018 and drove the #88 till 2020. Bowman then transitioned to the #48 team in 2021 and has been with the team since then.

Alex Bowman has promising records at the Daytona 500 with HMS and started the race in the front row for four years from 2020 to 2023. He won three qualifying races securing the pole position in 2018, 2021, and 2023.

Despite not starting the 500-lap race from the pole position last year, the #48 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver finished as the runner-up, clinching his career-best finish at the Daytona 500. Reflecting upon his previous records, Alex Bowman has high hopes for the upcoming race and stated:

“Qualifying means a lot to Mr. Hendrick and everybody in the engine shop and the chassis shop, everybody that puts the cars together. It’s kind of their time to shine. But winning the 500 means a little bit more than that. I would take the win over the pole.” (via APNews.com)

The HMS driver secured only one win, 17 top tens, and eight top-five finishes, wrapping up his 2024 season in ninth place on the leaderboard.

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“Still adjusting to how much it hurts to crash”: Alex Bowman's verdict on current-generation cars

In January 2025, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman shared his thoughts on the new adjustments after the introduction of the Gen-7 cars. Reflecting upon his on-track struggles, including crashing, he mentioned that they were a learning experience for him to improve in the upcoming years.

Driving the #48 Chevy Camaro ZL1, Bowman only secured two wins since the introduction of the Gen-7 cars. Opening up about the adjustments, the Arizona native said:

"Yeah, still adjusting to how much it hurts to crash."

Alex Bowman also mentioned that the team has made changes to the next-gen cars to improve the on-track performance.

"I think it's definitely been a learning experience and a learning curve and continues to change, right? We've had a couple different iterations of rules packages. We'll see where that goes in the future. Like we've tweaked things to try to get the racing better at a lot of different styles of race tracks, so, it's just way different than anything we ever had before, but it's pretty normal at this point," he added.

The 31-year-old driver has been facing a tough time since the 2023 season. He missed three races in the season due to a severe back injury, leading to a winless year. He snapped his 80-race winless streak last year with his only win at Chicago.