CONCORD, N.C. – At his home track, Alex Bowman couldn’t wait to get started Sunday at ISM Raceway.
But after taking the green flag in fourth, not much went the Arizona native’s way early in the race.
“Yeah, it was a frustrating day,” Bowman said.
After losing position on pit road, the driver finished Stage 1 in 16th, then electrical issues took his day to another, much warmer, level.
“I don’t know if we had brake fans or not because we didn’t have any other fans – everything inside the car quit,” Bowman explained. “My helmet blower quit, everything quit. It was hot. I burnt my feet pretty good, but the race car wasn’t bad. Just my trackbar quit when everything else quit, so I had no adjustment all day, too.”
Still, he worked his way back to the precipice of the top 10 in 11th before a speeding penalty on pit road sent him to the rear of the field.
“I sped on pit road when I swerved to miss some debris,” he explained. “Had some bad pit stops and rebounded from it.”
To Bowman’s point, he got back to work in the final segment, moving from outside the top 20 to inside the top 15 with approximately 40 laps to go.
In the end, he crossed the finish line 13th and was proud of the No. 88 team’s fight.
“We overcame a lot,” he said. “We will take 13th for as rough as today was.”