NASCAR

Bowman takes thrilling victory for Hendrick Motorsports in Richmond

Motorsport Technology
19 Apr 2021
2 min read

Alex Bowman notched his first victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports and the team’s third after a dramatic late charge saw him take the chequered flag first in Richmond.

Bowman had started the race well down the field and rolled off the line in 24th but soon made inroads, breaking into the top ten with 20 laps of the opening stage remaining and finishing seventh.

Running fourth at the end of Stage 2, all of Bowman’s good work seemed to have been for nothing when he was hit with a penalty for an uncontrolled tire and had to restart Stage 3 in 12th. Having pulled himself back to eighth after a round of pit stops, a caution gave him the opportunity to pit for fuel and fresh tires and he sealed a memorable win by passing Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano with ten laps remaining.

“We just had a great race car; it’s as simple as that,” Bowman is quoted on the team’s website after becoming the first Hendrick Motorsports driver to win at the Virginia track since Jimmie Johnson.

“(Crew chief) Greg Ives and all the guys, they have to deal with me at short tracks and I drive these places really wrong. Instead of trying to make me figure it out, we went to work on getting the race car where I needed it to be. Greg has done such an amazing job at making that happen.”

Teammate William Byron earned his seventh top-10 finish in a row after he placed seventh as Chase Elliot and Kyle Larson finished in 12th and 18th respectively.

“First and foremost, got to thank Ally and Chevrolet; everyone at Hendrick Motorsports,” added Bowman. “This one is for Rowdy (Harrell) and his family. Miss him and Blakley (Harrell’s wife) every day. Just means the world to be able to win for Ally. It’s definitely emotional, obviously, with how hard the off-season was on us. Appreciative for the opportunity and we have more races to win this year.”

Motorsport Technology

View all posts

You may also like