CONCORD, N.C. – Alex Bowman continued his solid start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season with an eighth-place finish at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. It marked his fourth consecutive top-10 run of the year.
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The result came from Bowman and the No. 48 Ally Racing team's grind-it-out mentality. The 31-year-old driver ran around his average running position of 15.26 for much of the first two stages. In the final stage, crew chief Blake Harris had his driver run a little longer than most of the leaders and the team pitted from the top 10 on lap 238. Bowman's pit crew of Andrew Bridgeforth (rear-tire changer), Jacob Conley (fueler), Brandon Grier (tire carrier), Allen Holman (jackman) and Donnie Tasser (front-tire changer) were strong all day on pit road – producing three stops of under 9.70 seconds, including a green-flag stop of 8.98 seconds on lap 238, per Racing Insights.
Taking the last restart of the race from 12th with 34 laps to go, Bowman hunted for a spot in the top 10, passing Ross Chastain for the position on lap 282. Two laps later, he moved up to eighth after the leaders (Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick) had to pit after making significant contact with each other. The result was Bowman's fourth top 10 at Darlington.
"We didn't make any big mistakes and had a really good day on pit road," Bowman said. "We never got the race car where we wanted it, but we were still able to come out with a top-10 finish. It was really through attrition and other people's mistakes. We never give up, but it certainly wasn't pretty."
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At the midpoint of the regular season, Bowman is tied for the NASCAR Cup Series lead in top-10 finishes (eight) with Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron. That matches his high mark for the most top-10s through 13 races, set in 2022. The driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet ranks sixth in average finish among series regulars at 12.7 and is part of a six-way tie for fifth in top-five finishes (four). He is ninth in the points standings.
A streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes began with a fifth-place run at Talladega Superspeedway. It continued with an eighth-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway (in his 300th Cup Series start), a seventh-place result at Kansas Speedway and an eighth at Darlington. This stretch marks the sixth time in Bowman's career at Hendrick Motorsports that he has four straight top-10 finishes, but he has never had five consecutive top-10s.
BOWMAN'S STREAKS OF FOUR CONSECUTIVE TOP-10 FINISHES
2019: Talladega, Dover, Kansas and Charlotte Motor Speedway
2020: Dover, Daytona International Speedway, Darlington and Richmond Raceway
2020: Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Kansas, Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway
2021: Dover, Circuit of The Americas, Charlotte and Sonoma Raceway
2023: Daytona, Auto Club Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway
2024: Talladega, Dover, Kansas and Darlington
Bowman will look to extend his streak in the next points-paying event, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on Sunday, May 26 (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio-Channel 90). He has one top-five finish and four top-10s in his last six starts in the sport's longest-mileage race of the season.
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Before that, Bowman will look to race his way into the All-Star Race on Sunday, May 19 (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio—Channel 90) at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He can do this by finishing in the top-two positions of the All-Star Open on Sunday, May 19, (5:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio—Channel 90) or by winning the All-Star Fan Vote. In the latest voting update released by NASCAR last week, he was among the drivers in the top 10 of the fan vote. Due to injury, Bowman did not run at North Wilkesboro last year, but his car won the Open with Josh Berry behind the wheel.
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