JOLIET, Ill. – Alex Bowman had a feeling about Chicagoland Speedway.
“We’ll move on to Chicago next week,” Bowman said after a top-15 run at Sonoma Raceway last weekend. “We should be phenomenal there.”
Certainly, the driver had seen some success in his last two races at Chicago, finishing 10th in 2016 and 2018. But the confidence didn’t revolve around that so much as it did Kansas Speedway.
At Kansas in May, Bowman led 63 laps en route to a runner-up result, becoming the first driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to finish second in three straight races prior to capturing his first win.
But the third second-place result in that stint felt much different than the first two.
“I feel like we gave one away,” the driver said. “I think after Kansas, we run second, I'm super bummed on that one. My family is from there, and I really wanted to win that race.
“I was pretty upset with myself, and I got back to the lounge, and one of our engineers, Tim (O’Brien), he's like, ‘Just wait until Chicago.’”
He kept that in his back pocket, picking up two more top-10 results and never finishing outside of the top 15 between Kansas and Chicago.
And when the race finally arrived, he knew he was poised for a big afternoon.
“Obviously, it's not repaved like Kansas is, but Chicago is a very similar racetrack,” Bowman said. “And we brought the same race car.”
Sunday afternoon, he piloted the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a ninth-place finish in Stage 1, improving to a fourth-place result in Stage 2. But it was in the final segment that he flashed what he and his car could do, racing into the lead.
He fittingly led 88 laps in total, including 40 of the last 42, en route to the win. The run included a neck-and-neck battle with Kyle Larson, who briefly tracked down Bowman to take the lead with eight laps to go only for Bowman to retake the top spot two laps later.
“We raced each other super clean,” Bowman said. “That was just hard racing, and I think it's a lot of fun to race Kyle like that.”
No. 88 team crew chief Greg Ives was impressed by the perseverance shown by his driver, particularly after he surrendered the lead in similar fashion in that fateful second-place result at Kansas.
“Finishing second there I think has been valuable for us to learn and grow as a team,” Ives said. “What happened almost mimicked what happened in Kansas, but I think Alex had some experience behind him and allowed him to understand that Kyle (Larson)'s car was going to adjust and change a little bit when he got out front, and he just had to stay after it and attack.
“Sometimes if you feel beat, you're going to get beat. I felt like he had that experience to know he still had an opportunity, and he took advantage of it.”
In the end, Bowman was able to put together the “phenomenal” Chicago performance he predicted. He captured his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and locked himself into the playoffs in the process.
“Getting a Cup win is something that kind of relaxes me in the sense that I feel like I can finally say I deserve to be here,” the driver said. “It's been a heck of a last couple years, and I don't know what to say. I feel like it hasn't sunk in yet.”