DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Alex Bowman finished Daytona 500 qualifying with a front-row spot on the outside pole with Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron by his side on the pole.
With the season starting on a strong note, Bowman reflected on what it will take to get to Victory Lane and the No. 88 team’s approach to the year. Part of that has involved looking back to last season when he advanced to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
“I was just kind of able to identify some weaknesses last year that I can work on,” Bowman said. “Hopefully our race cars will be better this year. We’ll see when we get to Atlanta and know what we have to work with. Everybody is working so hard at Hendrick Motorsports. I’m working harder than I ever have been to try to be a better race car driver. Hopefully it pays off.”
With last year’s campaign behind him, the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 wanted to set goals and expectations for the new race season.
“Goals are as high if not higher than last year,” Bowman said. “We want to go win races and contend for a championship.”
One of those goals is focusing on the small details that make the bigger picture. With so many people bringing different aspects to getting Bowman everything he would need to win, it is the little things that make all the difference. One of those details Bowman talked about is that he needed to maximize his trips to pit road.
“Everything is separated by so little,” he said. “We just work really hard at trying to maximize every little thing.”
The first opportunity to capitalize on that preparation comes in this Sunday’s Daytona 500, which will be broadcast on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio at 2:30 p.m. ET.
With two Hendrick Motorsports drivers on the front row, Bowman hopes all four teammates can work together to stay up front all afternoon.
“I would love to sit here and say yes it can be done; and hopefully we could do that,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. We’ve got to get the other two cars in the second row first and go from there. Hopefully we can make that happen.”