CONCORD, N.C. -- Alex Bowman took home his first iRacing win of the season Sunday after he crossed the finish line first at the virtual Talladega track.
The driver of the No. 88 Camaro ZL1 1LE said he was surprised he was able to pull off the win and that it boiled down to luck and a little more practice.
“I think Talladega was the one that I think you could get away with running minimally, so that was good," he said. "Last week at Richmond we didn't run very well and that came down to a lack of practice, but I think this week I ran a little bit and it ended up being enough.
“It’s been a learning curve for sure and I've kept myself busy in other ways, so probably haven't put the same amount of time into it as some of the other guys have.”
Bowman jokingly tweeted that he was “scared to death” as the race went on at the 2.66-mile track, but he said if a crazy win was going to happen, it would be at a track like Talladega.
“It's pretty wild to me with how good a lot of those guys are and how much experience that they have,” Bowman said. “But if it was going to happen somewhere, like Talladega is a place where you can kind of be in the right place at the right time and make it happen.”
He added if the cautions hadn’t fallen the way they did, he was going to run out of fuel before the race was finished.
Bowman is one of two drivers this season who has both a win on the live track and through iRacing. He joked he wasn’t sure how that happened, but he’s thrilled with the victory.
“It's good for everybody with Chevy Goods on the car and it's good to have some momentum,” he said. “You know, obviously the season was going really well for us in real life and then as we got into this virtual deal, had some ups and downs, but to get a win is really cool.”
Teammate William Byron has been instrumental in helping Bowman out. Byron famously got his NASCAR start from iRacing and has won the past two eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series events.
“I definitely lean on William quite a bit. I text him quite a bit just asking him about tips and how much to do burnouts for qualifying to warm your tires up and stuff like that,” Bowman said. “He's probably been the biggest help out of anybody that I've worked with.”
Bowman will have another chance to secure Hendrick Motorsports’ fourth iRacing win in a row this Sunday at the virtual Dover track.