LOUDON, N.H. — Alex Bowman recently got perhaps the most important phone call of his career.
And he sent it to voicemail.
It was No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crew chief Greg Ives on the horn, calling to see if the 23-year-old could fill in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. — battling concussion symptoms — this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“Yeah, it’s been a crazy 12 hours for sure,” Bowman said Friday at the track. “I think the first time Greg called me I was at work, so I didn’t even answer. But it’s definitely not the circumstances that I want to get an opportunity like this.
“… Obviously I’m hoping Dale feels better, but at the same time it’s the best opportunity I’ve ever had in my life. I’m ready to just plug into their program and do my job. I’ll give them the best feedback I can and go from there. I’m really confident in the whole team. Obviously they bring great race cars to the track every weekend, so if I just do my job I feel like we would be good to plug into it.”
Bowman will take over the reins of the No. 88 in Sunday’s New Hampshire 301 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for a one-race shot in the Sprint Cup Series, his first start of the year after back-to-back full slates in 2014 and 2015. Should Earnhardt need another week to recover, HMS officials noted that recently retired four-time champion Jeff Gordon would be behind the wheel at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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The young, talented Bowman is a part of Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports stable, taking on a nine-race stint in the XFINITY Series in the No. 88 Camaro. His rapport with the organization — his four straight top-10 finishes so far this year probably didn’t hurt either — made the decision a near lock.
“Dale and Greg and I felt like Alex (Bowman) was the right person,” said Doug Duchardt, Hendrick Motorsports General Manager. “He’s run the XFINITY car. He’s done a good job in that car. He is part of the JR Motorsports system and part of our system. And so, Greg reached out to Alex. Alex came in Tuesday night to get fitted for the car.”
For Bowman, the once highly touted prospect whose career took a detour after losing his Sprint Cup ride in January — and finding out about it on Twitter, no less — it’s another positive opportunity that comes via Earnhardt, albeit in an unfortunate way this time around.
After the Arizona native learned he was jobless in late January, Earnhardt stepped in to work with Bowman to come up with a partial XFINITY Series schedule for the driver after he ran two races for the organization in 2014.
While those two races didn’t result in spectacular finishes (12th at Charlotte, 17th at Phoenix in the No. 5), it paid off for JRM in 2016, as Bowman now sports a sterling 6.25 average finish through four races.
“I think I can really thank Dale, Jr. for saving my career two years ago pretty much, with those two XFINITY races at Charlotte and Phoenix, and then for the opportunity to run nine races this year with him,” said Bowman, who placed 13th in the first practice session Friday with a best speed of 132.172 mph.
“Obviously, we have been knocking on the door to get some wins and it has been a lot of fun.
“He has been a good friend to me. He has been somebody that I can lean on all the time. Obviously, I hate to see him not feeling well. That was my first thought, but he has done a lot for my career and I couldn’t be any more thankful than I am. I owe him a lot. It’s just been an honor to get the phone call to fill in for him.”