Alex Bowman posts career-best finish in Geico 500 at Talladega

LINCOLN, Ala. — Alex Bowman posted a career best finish Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in the 2019 Geico 500. Bowman, who replaced NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year in the No. 88 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports, had not posted a top-10 this season.

Bowman’s best finish this season was an 11th-place effort at both Daytona International Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this season.

“After the year we’ve had, second-place feels pretty good,” Bowman said post-race. “I was in the catbird seat to go win that race. You don’t want to be leading when you come to the white [flag].

“I was pretty pumped and kinda knew the outside lane had fallen apart and I was gonna be able to maybe get a run. [I’m] really proud of Chevrolet and everybody sticking together and executing like we had talked about. [I am] proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for bringing great race cars to the track.”

Bowman’s Team Hendrick teammate, Chase Elliott, was deemed the victor of the race after the caution flag flew for an incident involving Kyle Larson and David Ragan on the last lap. Per NASCAR rules, after the leader takes the white flag and the caution flag waves, the event is official.

It took 10 races this season to get Chevrolet into Victory Lane, the longest amount of races to open a season since 2002. The last seven races at Talladega Superspeedway had been won by Ford, but that streak also snapped with Elliott’s bowtie in Victory Lane.

Bowman will hope to finish just one position better next Sunday (May 5) at Dover International Speedway in the Gander RV 400 (2:00 p.m. EDT)