It’s been a rough stretch for Alex Bowman since returning to the track from a fractured vertebra last May.
Prior to his injury, Bowman had scored six top-10 finishes to kickoff the 2023 season. Since his return last year, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had only three in the final 23 races.
A second in the season-opening Daytona 500 was a stout start to this year. However, three straight finishes of 18th or worse began to reverse the good fortunes Bowman had earned at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.
Though a strong fourth at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway was a reset.
Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas In Austin, Texas, however, may have been the turning point Bowman’s been searching for in nearly a year.
Bowman secured another fourth-place finish at the 3.41-mile road course, giving the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet back-to-back top fives for the first time since the Fall of 2020 at Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.
That happened more than 100 races ago.
After the race, Bowman appeared from his race car feeling a sense of disappointment.
“I wouldn’t say I am worn out; I am just bummed. Probably just got stuck out in traffic after our last pit stop,” Bowman said after the race. “It was a bad spot that I had to run too hard on low air and beat the rear tires up.
“Kind of inched in on William (Byron) for a bit, but then the rear tires just went away. Yeah, definitely had to manage it some. Definitely some tire fall off here.”
Describing his afternoon further, Bowman felt he could’ve been in contention for the win had his tires not fallen off toward the latter part of the last run.
“We had a good Ally Camaro, we just needed to hold on to rear grip longer,” Bowman said. “It’s been the same since we unloaded and we definitely made it better, but still kind of fighting the same thing. Blake (Harris) and the guys called a good race.
“We had a good day, just sucks to come up a couple short again.”
He may have come up short at COTA, though Bowman continues to climb the points standings as he now sits 11th.