Bowman: ‘We are definitely not where we want to be’

Four years and six Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races into his high-profile trajectory toward, hopefully, Cup royalty, Alex Bowman, aged 25 and part of Hendrick Motorsports, had to check up when asked if Texas Motor Speedway, as well as the wide-open spaces and stockyards of Fort Worth, Texas, compared to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. "Texas and Tucson?" he mused. "I don't know if Texas reminds me of Tucson at all; I feel like Tucson is quite a bit different. But, you know, they have the whole Tex-Mex thing out here. In Tucson and Phoenix, it's all authentic Mexican food. I'd rather have the authentic stuff back home, for sure. But if anything, I’d love to win a race here." This weekend in the Lone Star State will mark the seventh mashup among the world's best stock-car drivers in 2019, this date with fate to run on an asphalt backdrop featuring a 1.5-mile quad-oval. "It's an interesting race track in just how they kind of reshaped everything somewhat recently," said Bowman. "Turns 1 and 2 are really awkward and I don't feel like anybody gets real comfortable down there. It's just real narrow. The groove hasn't really widened out yet and it's kind of along the bottom of the track and it's pretty hard to race guys. I think we can definitely perform if everything works out for us. We definitely haven't started out the year the way we wanted to, but hopefully we've made some progress on the cars and we should be pretty good here." RELATED: Full field in photos Bowman needs a good one as the results he and the No. 88 race outfit have posted up thus far in '19 have been wobbly at best, two eleventh-place checkered flag greetings being the highlights. Maybe a rough start they just need to put in their mirrors? "There are no maybes about it as we are definitely not where we want to be," Bowman said. "We've performed pretty poorly for the most part thus far. We've got a lot of work to do, but it is not from a lack of effort. All of our guys have been working their butts off. There have been a lot of late night in the shop and they’ve all been working hard, so hopefully we get it turned around quick. We have a new race car for us here in Texas and hopefully it’s a good one. "If we knew exactly where we were falling short, we’d fix it. It’s been tough; it’s been probably two years now of being short of where we want to be. We’ve got a lot of work to do, so we’re continuing to work hard at it and I think we’re getting closer. We ran really well last weekend at Martinsville, so that was encouraging and collectively, as a group, we’re going to keep working at it and hopefully get better." Frustrated, but for the most part undaunted, Bowman and Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson (on the Busch Pole), Chase Elliott (starting third) and William Byron (starting second) all have worked well together and are throwing everything the operation has at hitting critical mass. RELATED: Johnson lands pole position at Texas Five years into his Cup career, is Bowman feeling it? “I think so,” he replied confidently. “I’m continuing to improve and doing all I can on-and-off the racetrack to help us as much as I can. I think everything needs to be improved upon and we need to look at areas that I can learn in. It’s been a rough I guess you could say 14 months since we got going in ’18 and we’ve definitely had some positives and some good races, but not nearly the amount we expected, so we just have to keep digging at it. “At this level, it’s super-competitive and there are so many moving parts and pieces that can make or break your day. To put the whole package together and have a good day is tough at times, but it all starts with having a good group of guys around you and I feel like this 88 team is really strong and our race cars will continue to get stronger and our days will get easier, for sure.”