Whereas Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (two) and Kyle Larson have collectively gained three of the sequence’ first six races, Bowman struggled with a three-race stretch of no end higher than 18th.
He snapped that streak with a strong fourth place end final week at Bristol and adopted it up with one other fourth Sunday at Circuit of the Americas.
Even higher was Bowman and his No. 48 Chevrolet crew put themselves in place late in Sunday’s race to contend for the win – a hopeful signal for a driver attempting to finish what’s now a 67-race winless streak.
Bowman’s crew was one of many first to hit pit highway Sunday for its last inexperienced flag cease to tackle new tires and gas to make it to the end. The gamble put Bowman again out on the monitor in second behind chief Byron.
Bowman appeared to make up floor on his teammate for a couple of laps however finally he pale again to fourth as he additionally was instructed by his crew he wanted to preserve gas as a precaution.
“I’m simply bummed,” Bowman stated after the race. “In all probability simply obtained caught out in visitors after our final pit cease. It was a foul spot that I needed to run too onerous on low air and beat the rear tires up.
“Sort of inched in on William for a bit, however then the rear tires simply went away. Yeah, positively needed to handle it some. Positively some tire fall-off right here.
“We had a superb day, simply sucks to come back up a pair brief once more.”
Nonetheless, Sunday’s consequence was Bowman’s third prime 5 end within the season’s first six races. He’s already only one in need of his prime 5 complete for every of the previous two seasons (4). He’s additionally improved to eleventh within the sequence standings.
Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, stated he was glad to see Bowman and his crew start to faucet into their potential.
“When he will get on a roll, he will get his confidence up; there’s no telling what they’re able to doing,” Gordon stated. “I’m actually comfortable for them. Two prime fives in a row. They’d had a pair tough weeks, in order that they wanted this.
“Hendrick Motorsports is hard, proper? 4 of the highest drivers and groups on the market, and there’s loads of stress on you. Should you’re profitable, there’s stress to proceed. If you’re not profitable otherwise you’re not on the similar stage as your teammates, there’s a ton of stress that you just obtained to get there.”
Gordon stated he believes Bowman excels greatest at dealing with troublesome challenges and the rocky begin to the season after a powerful runner-up end within the Daytona 500 actually introduced one.
“I’m going to go away right here and attempt to discover extra methods to essentially problem him much more,” Gordon stated. “He’s an awesome race automobile driver. It simply takes the entire mixture.
“I feel his confidence within the automobile, particularly as soon as they dropped the inexperienced flag, it confirmed.”
