MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TICKETGUARDIAN 500
ISM RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 9, 2018
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at ISM Raceway to discuss racing at his home track, an assessment of his season thus far, thoughts on his recent trip to Detroit and many other topics. Full Transcript:
TALK ABOUT WHAT IT’S LIKE TO COME HOME AND RACE HERE AT PHOENIX:
“Yeah, it’s always fun to come home. Don’t really get to spend a lot of time out here. It’s definitely an enjoyable trip. I really enjoy this racetrack too. Pretty successful here, wish we could close races a little better here. We have run really well here in the Xfinity Series and in the Cup Series. Just never been able to close one off. Hopefully, that all changes this weekend.”
NOW FULL TIME WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS ON A REGULAR BASIS ARE YOU TALKING TO JIMMIE JOHNSON TO GET SOME ADVICE OR ARE YOU JUST DOING YOUR OWN THING?
“All four teams share everything. All four drivers work really hard together. It’s really cool to see kind of the leadership role that Jimmie (Johnson) has taken on. He is one of the most successful guys in history, so it’s really cool to be able to lean on somebody with that much knowledge. To get help from him and not just him, but everybody. There is such a depth of really smart people at the company, so it’s great to be surrounded by the best in the business.”
THIS TRACK SEEMS TO BE ONE THAT YOUNGER DRIVERS ADAPT TO. ANY REASON FOR THAT?
“Not really, I feel like it took me longer to get kind of a grasp of this place than the 1.5-miles really. Honestly, I think a lot of what people look at as how a driver adapts to somewhere or a driver just runs really well on 1.5-miles or struggles on short tracks or as good on short tracks and struggles on 1.5-miles is much more about the racecar and the package than they have than about the driver themselves. When I first came here, we never really ran that well. The crew chief was like ‘man you just can’t qualify here, you can’t make speed here.’ And then I got in a good car and sat on the pole. It’s so much about equipment and sometimes your 1.5-mile program is better than your short track program and it makes you look like you adapt to different places differently. At least that is my opinion, some people may struggle with short tracks, it’s probably different for everybody, but I think it’s really more about your program.”
HOW WAS YOUR VISIT TO DETROIT WENT A FEW WEEKS AGO?
“Going to Detroit was really cool. Got to stand in Harley J. Earls office which was really cool. Just see some of the new innovations that GM and Chevrolet are working on. It’s really cool to be apart of that family now and get to see everything they have going on. It’s just a cool facility and had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.”
THREE RACES IN, HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE START TO 2018?
“Well, Daytona went well. We had a really fast racecar and contended all day and then got caught up in a wreck at the end. There is really nothing you can do there. But you know, other than that, we have not run how we expect and how we want to run. It hasn’t been a great start for us. I think we unloaded at Atlanta and quickly realized that we have a lot of work to do. We’ve got the best guys in the business back at the shop working hard. We made progress last week. We were definitely better last week. We didn’t get the finish that we would have hoped for, but we are making progress. To start the year, we are behind what we expected to be, but like I said before, there is such a depth of really smart people at Hendrick Motorsports that I’m confident that we will be contending for race wins soon.”
ANY DIFFERENCE COMING TO A TRACK WITH THE HENDRICK TEAM THAT YOU’VE BEEN TO BEFORE WITH THE HENDRICK TEAM?
“Absolutely, we have a notebook of what I liked here and a really good one at that. We were really fast here before. I think it’s a positive. We’ve got some changes. The racecar has changed, we have the new car in the Camaro ZL1. A lot has changed, but at the same time at least we have something to kind of look back on and look at what changes I liked and didn’t like throughout practice and where our car was strong and where we needed work. I think it’s always good to have that notebook to lean on and especially here with as good of a notebook as we’ve had.”