NEWTON, Iowa — Alex Bowman is determined to make the most of his chance with JR Motorsports in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
Sunday’s American Ethanol E15 250 presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the 23-year-old’s third straight start in the XFINITY Series and fourth in five races for JR Motorsports. The Arizona native feels he must deliver on this opportunity.
“I look it as my last, good shot,” Bowman told NASCAR.com on Friday at Iowa Speedway. “I’ve run full-time in (Sprint) Cup. I’ve run full time in XFINITY and this is the first time I’ve had race-winning equipment every week that I’m at the racetrack. I need to win races.
“I feel like I’ve proved that I can contend for wins. The only thing left to do is win. I just got to show that I can do my job and hopefully something comes up from there.”
In his three starts so far this season, Bowman has top 10s in every run with his best finish of third-place coming at Dover last month. He also scored the pole for last weekend’s race at Michigan.
After Iowa, Bowman has five more chances to pilot the No. 88 Chevrolet for JRM coming at New Hampshire, Richmond, Dover, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami to close the year.
If Bowman had it his way, there would be more to come in 2017.
“We have been working really hard with JRM to try and stay here for next year and put a full-time program together,” Bowman said. “I think we are working very hard on that from both sides. This is where I want to be.
“The phone’s rang here and there but if I had to pick somewhere to be, this is where it would be.”
The No. 88 is commonly referred to as the team’s “All-Star car” with Sprint Cup Series stars Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick making starts, as well as the up-and-coming Cole Custer. Crew chief Dave Elenz oversees the No. 88 team and has been impressed by what Bowman has brought to the group.
“The biggest thing with him is the amount of experience that he has,” Elenz told NASCAR.com. “You think of him as a young driver. We’ve had several young drivers in the car but the amount of experience that he has gained in the last few years running the vehicles he has is impressive.
“He knows what he wants from the car. He knows what the track is going to do. He’s helped us get the cars to the point where he can drive them and do what he needs.”
Team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been a big help to the young driver.
“He’s been more than that — just a really good friend,” Bowman said of Dale Jr. “It was pretty tough some of the circumstances I’ve been in over the last couple years and he’s always been there, been encouraging and done absolutely whatever he can to help. Just means a lot for him to be able to do that, and everyone over at JRM is like a big family, so that’s a good thing to be a part of.”
Prior to this season, Bowman had a full-time ride in the XFINITY Series in 2013 and had full-time rides in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2014 with BK Racing and 2015 with Tommy Baldwin Racing.
He appeared to be set to return to TBR in 2016 when news broke in late January — weeks before the season opening Daytona 500 — that Bowman was not returning to the team and news eventually came out that Regan Smith would drive the team’s No. 7 Chevrolet. The driver learned he had been fired via Twitter.
“That was really frustrating and really hard to deal with being (then) 22 years old and I don’t really have anything else to do,” Bowman said. “That was tough. It was a business decision. TBR had to do what’s best for them business wise and I get it. That’s how this sport works.”
Five months removed from the parting of ways, Bowman says he uses it to fuel his drive to win.
“It is a heck of a lot of motivation to prove them them wrong. That’s what I am here to do. I had a lot of fun with those guys. That race team has a lot of good people. I miss working with quite a few of them. But you know, I’m really happy with where I’m at.”
Bowman looks back on his two years in the Sprint Cup Series and wishes it was different.
“To begin with, I never wanted to go (Sprint) Cup racing in the manner that I did when I started.” Bowman explains. “I wanted to win races in everything I was in. I didn’t do as good of a job as I should have at managing expectations for those two years. ‘Hey, 25th is a really good day. You really should finish 33rd.’ I struggled a lot with that. It’s a lot easier for me mentally here.”