“Why not?”: Alex Bowman’s jackman confident about Hendrick Motorsports’ #48 team outshining teammates to win the NASCAR championship

Alex Bowman returned to the victory lane in the second edition of the Chicago Street race, snapping his 80-race winless streak. With the victory, Bowman secured his playoff ticket, and the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team expressed confidence in their title bid.

Prior to the Chicago race, Bowman was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver without a victory this season. Starting in the top 10 for The Grant Park 165, the #48 Chevy driver navigated the changing weather conditions and capitalized on his wet-weather tire strategy to win the street course race.

It was a much-needed victory for Bowman, as his teammates had already established themselves as championship favorites. Allen Holman, the jackman for the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team, remarked that the victory brought relief and was well-deserved at the same time.

In the post-race interview with NASCAR, Holman said (via the NASCAR YouTube channel):

"It's definitely a relief, feels good because this team deserves this. We work hard every day, we come in there, I see the shop guys, engineers put in the work. The pit crew puts in the work. Alex wants it every single time so, to finally get a win, it feels so good and we're in the playoffs, let's go!"

When Holman was asked if the team could win the championship this season, he replied confidently that they were here to compete for the title.

"Why not? I think he has the most top 10s in the year. So every week we are competitive. It's about us putting together a finish at the end of the day and today we showed that."

Bowman and Tyler Reddick were previously tied for the most top-10s in the Cup Series this season, but the 23XI Racing driver is now ahead of Bowman with 13 to the latter's 11. With six races left in the regular season, the #48 Chevy driver sits in 11th position in the driver's standings.

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Alex Bowman opens up about his winless streak amidst teammates' success

Since the beginning of the 2023 season, William Byron and Kyle Larson have been carrying the Hendrick banner, with Chase Elliott recently returning to his previous form. Alex Bowman was the only one left out, as he struggled to get to victory lane.

After snapping his win drought in the rain-affected race in Chicago, Bowman opened up about his struggles and how he was tested mentally during the period.

"Yeah, it's really difficult. Obviously we have all the tools we need to win, and our teammates have been really good throughout that time. But we just couldn't put it together." he said in the post-race press conference (via Speedwaydigest.com)

"It has certainly been a large mental test to go through everything that has happened in the last two years and try to continue to overcome that each and every week, especially when things aren't going your way, and honestly the last month has been super frustrating for us."

Alex Bowman added that the victory washed away a lot of the frustration that had built up over the last couple of seasons.