For the past 5 NASCAR Cup Series races, the boos have been louder than cheers. Jeff Gluck’s Good Race Poll registered positive votes below the 50% threshold, and the Bristol race was probably the most glaring, with 20.1% of fans voting for and a whopping 79.9% disliking the Food City 500 race. Kyle Larson led for 411 of 500 laps, quite like his 462-lap dominance in 2024. Fans had bashed Goodyear and NASCAR for this drab storyline that Larson dominated. However, the star’s teammate, Alex Bowman, defended him recently.

The AdventHealth 400 race got underway at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, and Larson was the highlight of this story again. He started from the pole and dominated 221 of 267 laps, winning all stages in the process. This could have again resulted in another hate train for Hendrick’s golden boy. However, Rick Hendrick’s ‘fourth driver’ shut down the backlash.

Alex Bowman shoots down doubts about his teammate

After all, we are talking about Kyle Larson here. A slight rise and fall in a race poll would do nothing to tarnish the racing reputation that he has. From clinching the 2021 Cup Series championship to grabbing his third Chili Bowl victory in 2025, Larson keeps racking up laurels. What is more? He is taking on a 2025 schedule, which is as eclectic as it gets. He has fetched two Xfinity Series race trophies already, and his sprint car racing schedule never pauses during the weekdays. In two weeks, he will be reattempting the ‘Double’, running both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Considering these superhuman feats, his teammate, Alex Bowman, vehemently opposed any resentment about his teammate.

Fans had booed both Bristol races, where Kyle Larson was the king of laps. The Kansas race played out to be the same, and yet somehow felt different for fans. So, a Frontstretch reporter broached this topic to Alex Bowman, asking him how he felt about his teammate’s dominating performance, which has been a negatively discussed theme for many races this season.

Bowman let his emotions know in a shocked outburst: “Damn, you’re going to be on the ‘he led to many laps so it’s a bad race’ train? Dang, everybody’s grumpy.“ Then he went on to defend Larson: “No, I thought the racing was the same as it has been at Kansas… So, hopefully, that doesn’t turn it into a bad race on Jeff’s poll here… We got to be above 46%, like the last couple have been below 46% or something. So yeah, hopefully, we’re above that. It’s way more fun than most people probably had last week.”

Last week’s race at Texas saw a slew of cautions because of bumps on Turns 3 and 4. This led to race leaders and high runners being forced to pit as they spun out after riding the bump. Josh Berry was leading the race when he spun out, and Kyle Busch was in third! The reactions to the racing product were loud, as fans complained about a lack of passing and poor repaving ruining the race overall. Kansas was a breath of fresh air, despite Larson leading for the most part, and that’s down to his teammates giving him a strong fight, disproving the narrative that this was a ‘boring race.’

Kyle Larson‘s #9 teammate, Chase Elliott, posed a serious threat to him at the end of the second stage. Elliott snatched his lead while Brad Keselowski also overtook him. However, Larson got lucky due to their technical mishaps and got ahead. Alex Bowman continued, stressing how the closing laps were comfortable for Larson: “I wasn’t close enough to see the front. I thought the battle for the lead on restarts was pretty wild. Yeah, the 5 was really, really good. Bowman then shut down critics of this year’s race, comparing it to 2024’s photo finish where Larson edged Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds, saying, “We didn’t get a late caution, so he didn’t get a crazy finish.”

Despite Bowman’s humble words, the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports car was not better off. Alex Bowman battled with a slew of upsets during the race to fetch a top-five finish at the end in a commendable drive.

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Dealing with frustration and ambition

Having clinched 6 top-ten finishes prior to Kansas, Alex Bowman already had good chances. However, a lot of things went awry for the No. 48 driver. Firstly, a bad sleeping posture left him “a little grumpy all day.” After starting the race in 21st, Bowman cracked the top ten soon enough. But Zane Smith’s No. 38 Ford veered right and pushed the 48 to the wall at one point.

Then there was more aggressive contact with the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota of Riley Herbst. An encounter with Denny Hamlin was also due as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver apparently waved to Bowman while leaving pit road. In the closing laps, Bowman raced as high as third before being overtaken by Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe. He came home fifth, earning his second top five and seventh top 10 of the season.

Despite these mind-boggling incidents, Alex Bowman patted his No. 48 team on the back for the top-five run. He said, “This is the best we’ve been. The point standings (eighth) don’t show it, and we haven’t won. The last month’s finishes certainly don’t show it. But for me, going to the racetrack, the only place that we haven’t been fast was Darlington, and we were going to run top 10 until I smoked the fence.” He added, “We were really fast with our Ally 48 Chevy – just hats off to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, you don’t get cars that are that fast that often. Super pleased with my race car, crashed it on the restart in stage two, and it did everything worse the whole rest of the day, and we still ran top five, so hats off to (crew chief) Blake Harris and all the guys.”

Evidently, Rick Hendrick’s team is banding together after its Kansas effort. As we head to the All-Star Race next weekend, let us see how Alex Bowman and Co. perform.