“There’s no hole anymore”: Alex Bowman’s crew chief delighted with first win in over two years 

Alex Bowman winning at Chicago was his first since March 2022. Bowman snapped his 80-race drought and booked a spot in the playoffs, something that made his crew chief Blake Harris proud.

Harris opened up on his thoughts in a post-race interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The crew chief of the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy Camaro spoke about how he felt after the win, and how he has kept Alex Bowman motivated through the last year of difficulties.

"I won't ever forget this one. It's been a challenge. A year and a half, we've been through a lot and had to fight, always fighting to get out of a hole, and there's no hole anymore today. We've set up a decent spot for the playoffs,"

"I feel like we've had really good consistent speed all year and for him to go execute in that way, he probably had a disadvantage on tires and everything, and just put 'em up on the dash and go with everything, nothing makes me more proud of this team and Alex," Harris said.

The interviewer asked the crew chief what he had done to keep his driver motivated through the rough patch of last year. Apart from going winless for the entirety of the 2023 season, Alex Bowman also suffered a broken back, which kept him out of his seat for three races. Bowman also missed 5 races in a row in 2022 because of a head injury.

"I think we just focus on the next thing. Even today, the crash with the #23 in the rain, I mean we had really good track position before that and we just reset. It was like, 'All right. What's next? We gotta get to the next restart. We gotta get to the next stage.' Just kind of kept executing it that way," the crew chief described.

Harris claimed that the #48 team has done it this way all along ever since the first day. He added that when things don't go their way, they just move on to the next thing and aim to execute it.

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"It's going to be a bad deal": Alex Bowman on celebration plans after his Chicago win

Speaking right after he got out of his #48 Next Gen Camaro, Alex Bowman revealed how he intended to party and celebrate his first win in over two years.

"The last time we won, we didn’t really get to celebrate – we’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight. It’s going to be a bad deal," Bowman said.

The 31-year-old added that he would probably wake up "naked on the bathroom floor again" after the celebrations. Bowman claimed it is part of the deal at times.

With his first win of the year and his playoff berth booked, Alex Bowman's 2024 season is shaping up to be his best in recent years. Apart from the Chicago win, Bowman has finished four times inside the top 5 and six times inside the top 10.