Martinsville was pretty much a Hendrick Motorsports show through and through. It wasn’t just the sea of red with fans rocking HMS tees and Rick Hendrick’s red cars taking over the track; it was also about all four of their drivers hitting the top 10. William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott clinched the podium spots, and even after Alex Bowman‘s race got messed up by the No’s 14’s smack in the end, he still managed to pull off a top-10 finish.

Alex Bowman was hoping for more than a P8 finish

Kicking off from a solid 10th spot, it looked like Alex Bowman was set up for a better end than a P8 at Martinsville. Despite not moving up at the start, dropping a spot in Stage 1, he was all in, trying to make up for it in Stage 2. Bowman found himself in the mix with the other Hendrick Motorsports hotshots, cruising from 4th to 7th around lap 122, and wrapping up Stage 2 in P6 place. But by the time the checkered flag waved, he had slipped back to P8, thanks to Stewart Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe.

Chatting with the reporters after the race, Alex Bowman opened up about the same, saying that it was surely super cool to see the #24 win on such a historic day. It would mean so much to Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick, and it’s super cool to have these Ruby Red Chevy Camaro’s on the track. However, he said, “Wish we would have had a little better day with our Ally 48. The last two runs, we just struggled a lot. We tightened up all day and then the racetrack got black and finally, we got on the other side of it and got too tight.“

And then, to top it all off, about that last restart, he said, “I didn’t stand a chance, 14 drove through me all four corners. So, just tough there to lose a couple of spots. But that’s short track racing hard of it at times. So yeah, moving on next week, hopefully it’s good for us, but a great day for Hendrick motorsports.”

Back at Richmond, Alex Bowman wrapped up in P17 after sliding down 13 spots from a P4 start. He averaged out in 13th place throughout the Toyota Owners 400. After that letdown, Bowman was probably gunning for a stronger showing at Martinsville. But then, thanks to Chase Briscoe, hell-bent on keeping his top-5 position, he not only threw a wrench in Bowman’s shot at a top-3 finish but also couldn’t hold onto it himself, ending up in 10th after leading for 8 laps.

Despite the ups and downs, stats suggested that Alex Bowman was in the mix for a top-3 finish alongside his HMS teammates.

#48 definitely could’ve ended up with a way better spot 

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Heading into Martinsville, Bowman’s track record wasn’t too shabby—out of 16 races, he has won, landed in the top-5 once, and made the top-10 five times. Plus, in his last seven races at Martinsville, he managed to grab a win and two finishes in sixth place, even though a couple of crashes messed up what could’ve been some pretty good runs in the last three years.

Hendrick Motorsports knows how to bring the heat to Martinsville. Alex Bowman had a real shot at zooming past the #14 and other cars. Fingers crossed, he’s aiming to come back with a vengeance next weekend in Texas.

Alex Bowman Dissects “Difficult” Richmond’s Only Aspect That Could Propel HMS to Victory Lane

Even though Texas hasn’t exactly rolled out the red carpet for him in the past—just two top-5s and two top-10s out of 14 starts, with an average finish spot of 23.9—Bowman’s knack for keeping at it might just flip the script this time around.