CHICAGO – Alex Bowman had acquired a special variety of bourbon early in the 2022 season, some of the top-shelf stuff with the idea that it would be shared and sipped to celebrate his next NASCAR Cup Series win.

Few imagined that bottle would be stowed on his own shelf for more than two years.

Sunday’s stirring drive through the damp streets of the Windy City to win the second edition of NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race represented a long journey back to Victory Lane for the 31-year-old driver and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team. It had been 80 races since that last visit, a span marked by two injury absences, sagging performance and a striking playoff miss while his teammates racked up wins and Championship 4 appearances. That all fueled burbling speculation – at least from the keyboard crowd – that his job was in jeopardy.

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Sunday’s triumph – punctuated by an almost cathartic burnout that shrouded Columbus Drive in smoke – was reason to raise a glass.

“Everybody that said I couldn’t win and don’t deserve to be at Hendrick Motorsports and all that [expletive], cheers to you,” Bowman said.

Bowman had barely emerged from the cloud around his No. 48 Chevrolet when Hendrick Motorsports president Jeff Andrews handed him his phone. On the other end of the line was team owner Rick Hendrick, offering his congratulations from afar. The celebration was also a cherished moment for Bowman’s No. 48 crew, which mobbed him at the start/finish line.

Just a handful of those team members had been with Bowman for his first Cup Series win, scored five years plus a week ago at Chicagoland Speedway, just south of the major metro. For them, the date and the place stood out, but so did the ability to share the stage with their driver for the first time since March 6, 2022, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“Alex is a super hard-working individual,” said Ty Sipes, the No. 48 car chief and a nearly 10-year Hendrick vet who transferred from the No. 88 group along with Bowman in 2021. “I mean, the time he puts into the simulator, the time he puts in by himself, it’s everything he’s doing to try and make himself better. For it to finally come together after all this, he never once quit, even through his injuries and everything else. He’s always been trying to get back to winning, so to get back here today, it really speaks as a testament to how hard he works.”

The work has been necessary. Bowman enjoyed four consecutive seasons of having his name in the rotation of Cup Series winners, but a concussion near the end of the 2022 campaign placed him on the sidelines for five weeks. He forged his way back into the seat but missed three more weeks last season after a springtime sprint car accident left him with a fractured back. A medical waiver from NASCAR officials cracked the door for playoff eligibility, but when the wins didn’t come, that opening shut.

Bowman recalled spending his 30th birthday in an Iowa hospital room in the hours after his back injury, feeling that he had let his No. 48 team down. The mental adversity, he said, was comparable to the physical pain.

“Yeah, it’s really difficult,” Bowman said. “Obviously we have all the tools we need to win, and our teammates have been really good throughout that time. But we just couldn’t put it together. It has certainly been a large mental test to go through everything that has happened in the last two years and try to continue to overcome that each and every week, especially when things aren’t going your way, and honestly, the last month has been super-frustrating for us. We’ve had a lot of things outside of our control, cost us a lot of points, and it’s been really frustrating. To be able — there’s a lot of emotions that go away with this because of how hard that has been.”

Perhaps some of the speculation goes away, too. Hendrick Motorsports is one of the rare teams that discloses contract lengths when they are announced, and Bowman provided a reminder that he is signed and sealed through the end of 2026, thanks to a three-year extension he agreed to before last season.

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That hasn’t stopped the Silly Season swirl that the contract might not be in permanent ink. Bowman’s Sunday drive, though, helped the cause as he put distance on road-racing ace Joey Hand in the closing laps, then went error-free the rest of the way as Tyler Reddick charged at him with a distinct tire advantage. And if the rumors needed further scuttling, Jeff Gordon – Hendrick’s vice chairman – seemed to make it official after Bowman’s long road back to winning ways reached its destination.

“You really want guys like that to find their way when they’ve had to struggle and have — just seems like right as he’s getting into a stride, boom, something would happen,” Gordon said. “I think that’s why this is so important, not just for him and the team but for him personally. As far as we’re concerned, Ally loves him, and we love him. He’s a car guy, and there’s a reason why he came to Hendrick Motorsports, and he’s proven he can win. Today was not an easy set of circumstances, and he proved he can win in these tough conditions, as well, on a road course.

“I understand why people want to talk and — it’s a tough business. When you’re at Hendrick Motorsports, you do expect, especially when the other three have won, to be in that same category, and it hasn’t been happening. Hopefully, this dispels a lot of the rumors.”

The victory also set aside any uncertainty for Bowman’s path back to the Cup Series Playoffs. Bowman entered Sunday’s event as the last driver in on the provisional 16-driver grid, with just a 51-point cushion over the provisional elimination line. He’s now out of the bubble conversation with six regular-season races remaining, joining teammates William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson as the fourth Hendrick driver to punch a playoff ticket.

“Man, it’s awesome to just have that weight kind of lift off your shoulders,” said No. 48 fueler Jacob Conley, another veteran who made the shift from the No. 88 team with Bowman three years ago. “In these last few weeks of the season, we can just race. You’re not worried about this and that; you’re just out there kind of racing free. I feel that’s when teams can get dangerous.”

The playoffs sit two months away, but for now, the top-shelf bourbon can finally be poured with the purpose it was meant for. Sunday’s beverage appetizer was freshly uncorked champagne in the Chicago twilight, sprayed by the No. 48 team with the vigor of a crew that had been waiting more than two years for that moment. They were coated in it when Bowman took a group photo from the stage.

“It tastes good,” Sipes said, “and even though it burns your eyes, it’s a good burn.”