CONCORD, N.C. -- The last time the No. 48 Chevrolet was in victory lane at Dover, it was June 2017. Chad Knaus still was Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief and Alex Bowman was a part-time driver for Hendrick Motorsports. Flash forward nearly four years and Bowman was behind the wheel as the No. 48 Ally machine was front and center as the team celebrated it’s historic 1-2-3-4 result at the Delaware track on Sunday.
Now Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of competition, Knaus was home in North Carolina watching the race. He stated seeing Bowman take the legendary car back to victory lane was nostalgic.
“It was definitely a flashback,” Knaus said. “I had seen that car roll around the racetrack in a very similar manner for years and years and years, and Alex had mentioned to me that he and Jimmie had sat down in 2019 and had a pretty big heart-to-heart on how to get around that racetrack. He said that he felt like, from that point on, what he did was he just took a step back and maybe gave up a little performance to try and make sure that he was doing it the way that Jimmie was doing it for a bit of time.
“Now he’s really come into his own at that racetrack, which we’ve seen the last couple of times there. He’s doing really well.”
Bowman is just the second driver this year to win more than one race, all but cementing him in the playoffs this fall. While Knaus said he was thrilled that Bowman led teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron to the checkered flag, the race became a nail biter halfway through.
“It’s what you always want to have but I never really thought it was going to be our reality,” Knaus said. “It was really stressful, quite honestly. About halfway through the race when we were running first through fourth and battling and racing and restarts and pit road with all those guys, it was really stressful. I was hoping they’d all be successful, and they were.”
Knaus sent the drivers, crew chiefs and Hendrick Motorsports general manager a note of congratulations after the race. However, he isn’t becoming complacent after the win. There are still 23 races left in the season and Knaus expects the four teams to keep grinding and improving.
“I’m going to say I hope we’re not at our peak yet,” he said. “I think we’re still working; we have a lot of things we’re still working through. Just trying to improve the performance, but I think that the guys are digging in really hard on their respective car numbers and it’s nice to see them working so closely together.
“Everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports is working extremely hard to try and get the best product out there on the racetrack. Pit crews are definitely getting better, stronger and more consistent, it’s been really fun to watch these guys progress. It’s going well at Hendrick Motorsports right now; we just got to keep pushing to stay on top of the curve.”