Take 5: Bowman’s contract drive, rookie blues and more

FONTANA, Calif. – The sun has set on a race weekend in the shadow of Hollywood at Auto Club Speedway. Alex Bowman was dominant for most of the weekend en route to his first win of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. Come along for a ride as we offer five takes from the third race of the year.

CONTRACT DRIVE: 
Much has been made about the potential for "Silly Season" to be among the wildest yet, with a host of drivers in their contract years. Sunday's race winner Alex Bowman is among the drivers in that boat.


 "Every year is a contract year. Every year of my life in the Cup Series has been a contract year," Bowman said after his win. "There's never a situation that I feel completely comfortable in. ... Hendrick Motorsports is where I want to be. It's where I want to stay for the rest of my career."




The early results have Bowman as the flag bearer for Hendrick. Scoring more wins -- look out for Bowman on the 1.5-milers -- will only make the case stronger for Hendrick to extend his stay in the No. 88.

BOWTIE BONANZA: Chevrolet had six drivers in the top 10 at Las Vegas and five in the top 11 at Auto Club. The lone driver to double up on that list in both races was Jimmie Johnson. That's 10 different drivers in that club: Alex Bowman, Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick (at Auto Club); Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Ty Dillon (at Vegas). 

In the same two races last year, only four different drivers -- all from the Hendrick and Ganassi camps -- finished in the top 11 in those spring races. The volume of Chevrolets logging top 10s is an early sign that the new-look Camaro is making a positive impact ... and that more results like Bowman's win are coming.

TOYOTA TURNAROUND? NOT SO FAST: A lot was made about the Toyotas struggling in qualifying, with Kyle Busch scoring the best starting spot (17th) for Sunday's race. Those whispers got a little louder when only Busch scored a stage point (1) in Stage 1. But by race end, JGR had three top 10s with Busch finishing second, Denny Hamlin in sixth and Erik Jones in 10th. Martin Truex Jr. finished 14th due to a lengthy green flag pit stop and voiced numerous frustrations on the radio over the course of the 200-lap race. So after not finishing better than 15th last weekend at Las Vegas, are the Toyota intermediate struggles a thing of the past?



"We're still slow. Our cars handled OK. If we don’t have a draft, we're just run over," Hamlin said. "It's tough because I feel like we're getting beat on throttle time, but we're also just getting murdered down the straightaways."


A year after JGR won 19 races, many expected a similar result with the bulk of the 2019 rules back for the 2020 season. Early on, JGR is a tick behind Hendrick and Penske and it's going to take some time to catch up. If these results are still happening around the Texas race, then it's time to be extremely concerned.

IN THE LONG RUN: 
There's a Don Henley-led Eagles song titled "The Long Run," and that title sums up the bread and butter of how Ryan Blaney is atop the point standings after three races in 2020.




"The strength of our car has been long runs," crew chief Todd Gordon told NASCAR.com. "Ryan does a great job with it. It's something we've talked about working on and we've been successful with it."




Having long-run speed will keep Blaney a factor in many races -- especially at tracks where tire falloff is critical to manage, like Sunday's race at Fontana as well as upcoming tracks like Atlanta and Miami later this month. With that characteristic showing in spades, the trips to Victory Lane aren't far away. 


ROOKIE BLUES:
 It's been a rough start to Christopher Bell's rookie campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series. He wrecked late in the Daytona 500 and saw a jack stab bolt go through the radiator at Auto Club, according to Leavine Family Racing's competition director Mike Wheeler on Twitter. His best finish through three races is a 21st-place result at Daytona.


In fact, the best finish from one of last year's Xfinity Series "Big 3" is Tyler Reddick's 11th-place finish at Fontana on Sunday. All three drivers are in the lower portion of the standings through three races: Reddick is 23rd, Cole Custer is 26th and Bell is 32nd. Growing pains are a part of moving up the national series ladder and there is a learning curve when competing against Sunday's best.


With high-wear tracks like Atlanta and Miami coming up, Reddick is the rookie poised to make the most noise in the short term. All three are too talented not to score good finishes this year, but getting to those results will take time.