Sunday’s race in Martinsville turned out to be quite the celebratory occasion for Hendrick Motorsports. Three of the team’s four drivers took the first three spots in the leaderboard and gave further reason for the jubilance around the 40th anniversary. However, the fourth driver, Alex Bowman did not have a day as good as his counterparts.
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Driving the #48 Chevy Camaro, he finished in 8th place. While the result is a solid one and his fourth top-ten finish of the season, he admitted post-race that he had to struggle quite a bit to earn it. He said, “[I] wish we would have had a little better day with our Ally 48. The last two runs we just struggled a lot. I tightened up all day and then the racetrack got black.”
He continued, “We got on the other side of it and got too tight. In that last restart I didn’t stand a chance. The #14 drove through all four corners. So, just tough there to lose a couple spots but that’s short track racing.” Bowman’s desire was that he’d driven slightly better and made his team’s special day a tad bit extra. Regardless, he now sits 10th in the points table.
Hendrick Motorsports has a historic race at the Martinsville Speedway
While Bowman was struggling to keep his pace in the #48 Camaro, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and William Byron combined to write another page of glorious Hendrick Motorsports history. The drivers finished top three with Byron grabbing the victory and Larson ending runner-up. The 1-2-3 result was the team’s fourth such result in history and marked its 305th victory.
Team owner Rick Hendrick had undergone knee replacement surgery prior to the race and couldn’t make it to Martinsville. However, he called in on the Fox Sports crew to check in on things and expressed his joy. “It was a special day,” he said. “I never thought that we’d end up running 1-2-3. When that caution came out, I thought, we’re in trouble. I’ve been there before when we were 1-2, there was a caution and we ended up not winning.”
Bowman’s 8th-place finish put all four Hendrick cars inside the top 10 and marked the 6th time that the team did so in Martinsville. Though he wasn’t up there with his mates, the driver has little to worry about having brought in a big result.
