“Who would have said Logano would win the championship”: Alex Bowman laments HMS’ crucial blunder after Team Penske ace’s unexpected triumph

Alex Bowman shared his thoughts on the upcoming 2025 season and losing the final Round of 8 spot in the 2024 season to Joey Logano due to a disqualification. Bowman said the team needs to score wins amid the sport's unpredictable nature as evidenced by Logano's championship run.

Bowman is a 31-year-old NASCAR Cup Series driver part of Hendrick Motorsports. He initially advanced to the Round of 8 after the Charlotte Roval race but was later disqualified because his No. 48 Chevrolet failed the post-race inspection.

In turn, Joey Logano was brought back to the playoffs. Logano capitalized on the opportunity and went on to win the 2024 championship title at Phoenix Raceway.

In an interview with racer.com, Alex Bowman spoke about the difficulty of predicting race outcomes, as Joey Logano wasn't considered a top contender throughout the season.

"It’s so hard to make an outlook just because who would have said [Joey] Logano would win the championship in the middle of the year?" Bowman stated.

The 31-year-old also touched on his disappointing elimination despite initially advancing on points, saying the DQ didn't discourage the No. 48 team to continue pushing for race wins.

"It certainly was disappointing and [it’s] part of racing, sometimes," Bowman stated. "That stuff is going to happen, and unfortunately, we let it happen. It was certainly disappointing but I don’t think it deflated our race team. It didn’t really change much of what we were doing, I think we continued to operate at a high level."

Alex Bowman drives the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro - Source: Imagn

In the 2024 season, Alex Bowman secured one win which came at the Chicago street race. He also amassed eight top-5s and 17 top-10s, five of which came in the final 10 races of the season.

The Arizona native is hopeful the No. 48 team can carry the momentum into the upcoming season.

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Alex Bowman is excited about the 2025 season

Alex Bowman may be disappointed with the recent disqualification but showed optimism for the 2025 season. He pointed out his strong performance in the final races, which can serve as the starting point for better results next year.

Bowman said:

"Hopefully, we can start there as a baseline, right? [...] 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."

Bowman will look to shake off the past challenging seasons. He missed five races in 2022 due to a concussion and three races in 2023 after breaking his back in a sprint car crash. The driver bounced back in 2024 and ended an 80-race winless streak in Chicago.

Alex Bowman won the 2024 Grant Park 165 - Source: Imagn

The eight-time Cup race winner will return to the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports next year. He will kick off the season with the Daytona 500 race on February 16.