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CONCORD, N.C. — The guy starting second in this weekend’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway isn’t racing to remain relevant in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
He’s racing to remain relevant. Period.
Alex Bowman, the former Sprint Cup driver, is now doing spot duty for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. A nice gig if you can get it. But Bowman doesn’t want to become known as Mr. Fill-In.
“I don’t want to sit here and say that I want to take advantage of that, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings if that does come up, if I’m the guy that gets called,” Bowman, 23, said Thursday evening, shortly after wheeling his way to the No. 2 spot on Sunday’s starting grid.
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“In a perfect world I would love to run a fourth XFINITY (Series) car for JR Motorsports.”
Perfect hasn’t been the case thus far, however. JRM is expected to field four full-time teams in the lower-tier series again next season. Bowman has been a part of that plan this year, sharing time in one of the organization’s entries.
But next year’s lineup will include current Camping World Truck Series driver William Byron and any plans for Bowman, at this point, don’t come with full-time status.
If he continues to deliver performances akin to Thursday night’s qualifying effort, maybe that won’t be a problem.
For now, though, that seems to be the case.
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Bowman and Jeff Gordon have been sharing seat time in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet while Earnhardt Jr. continues his recovery from a concussion. Gordon won four championships at NASCAR’s top level. He won 93 races. He made it all the way to the Championship 4 last season, his final push before hanging up his helmet (temporarily) and heading off to the television booth.
Bowman?
He was a virtual unknown until a qualifying effort at Richmond two years ago drew the attention of Earnhardt, “and he gave me a shot in his XFINITY car,” Bowman said.
The opportunity to compete in a Hendrick Motorsports car has elevated not only his performance, it has elevated his status somewhat as well.
“You are definitely viewed differently depending on what you drive and what you do with it,” he said.
“It’s very interesting how the garage works. I feel like if you are in one of the back 10 cars, you are not really almost even looked at as a race car driver sometimes until you do something that you are not supposed to do.
“If you run better than you are supposed to, you pass somebody you are not supposed to or you out qualify somebody you are not supposed to. Once you do that I feel like that kind of changes, but showing up to the race track in a Hendrick Motorsports car … I feel like I walk in and I’m viewed differently.”
Nearly qualifying on the pole, he missed the top spot by just .004 second, hasn’t hurt. Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) will start on the pole.
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Earnhardt “saved my career,” Bowman said of the XFINITY opportunity. “He has been a big part of my life and I will definitely cherish that friendship forever.”
If there’s a debt owed, he knows the best way to repay it would be to compete at the level his friend expects.
“Obviously I hate the circumstances,” Bowman said, “but without him saying ‘Hey, put Alex in it,’ I don’t think that Hendrick Motorsports really would have thought of me.
“Maybe they would have, but who knows? I’m definitely thankful for all his support.”