THE MODERATOR: We're going to go ahead and now be joined by our race winner of today's Chicago Street Race, Alex Bowman. Congratulations on your win.
Q. You led six laps all year, and so you lead the final eight today. I'm curious, when you haven't been up front that much, what's going through your mind and are you wondering, do I still know how to hold somebody off?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I mean, the position that we were in, like I knew as we got tire temp we were a lot better than the 60. I didn't know what was coming behind us on slicks. I didn't know how hard I could run without killing the wet tire just because I haven't been in that position. Obviously missed all the wet laps at New Hampshire, missed a lot of laps here last year.
I probably could have made a lot more pace there with three to go and with two to go. I was kind of trying to take care of the tires, and then I realized that there was slicks coming and ran pretty hard there for the last two laps.
I was thinking about I knew there wasn't going to be a lot of laps because there was only so much time left in the race, and I knew with the gap that I saw behind me that we were in a really good spot.
Q. Alex, your interview with Marty out there, you sounded like the weight of the world was off your shoulders. You mentioned the brain injury, the back injury. You sounded like a guy who kind of had saved his job with this win. Did it feel that way to you, that this is a job that sort of secures your future in a sport where everything is always dependent on winning?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, certainly I have a contract through the end of 2026, and that hasn't been questioned as much as Twitter would like to believe it has.
But at the same time, it's more about, for me, just overcoming everything that's happened in my life in the last two years. It's been really difficult, right? The concussion and then to straight away go break my back after recovering from that and then to just tremendously struggle through last year and kind of lose our way a little bit, it was really difficult.
There's a lot of noise, and that makes it difficult for the team. I'm proud of my guys for being able to shut that out and work hard each and every week and have confidence in the decisions that we make and the race cars that we bring to the racetrack.
It means a lot to me to be able to overcome a lot and do something that I don't think a lot of people here really would have thought this weekend that we could.
Q. We saw you got hit on the cool-down lap by Bubba and then you apologized for spinning him in the interview. What did you make of that?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I'd do that, too. I ruined his day. We had a really -- the restart was chaotic. I just made every wrong decision I possibly could, and I was fighting with my windshield wiper switch trying to get the thing working and I couldn't get it working and I was focused on that, missed the corner and cleaned him out. I locked all four tires up and slid right into him. I just messed up and absolutely ruined his day.
I'm pretty hard on myself when I make mistakes like that, and I've been embarrassed about it since it happened. The rain delay was just a lot of me sitting there being embarrassed and being mad at myself. He has every right to be mad; I'd be mad, too. I tried to call him during the rain delay and I shot him a text. Nothing I can do to make it better, and I'm sure us winning probably only makes it worse.
But yeah, Bubba and I, we had our deal a long time ago, but even today we raced the hell out of each other, but we gave each other a lot of space, and it was really fun racing with him, and we've raced each other super fair and super clean, and I just messed up and ruined his day, so I hate that.
Q. Should NASCAR penalize him? Your window net was down.
ALEX BOWMAN: No, he barely hit me. It was fine, and it was plenty deserved.
Q. What's it like going 80 races without a win when you're a Hendrick Motorsports driver?
ALEX BOWMAN: It's not a lot of fun. Yeah, we won four races in '21. We won right off the bat in '22. Then we had a rough summer in '22 and then we got back rolling and then I got hurt and we started '23 really fast and I got hurt again.
Yeah, it's really difficult. Obviously we have all the tools we need to win, and our teammates have been really good throughout that time. But we just couldn't put it together.
It has certainly been a large mental test to go through everything that has happened in the last two years and try to continue to overcome that each and every week, especially when things aren't going your way, and honestly the last month has been super frustrating for us. We've had a lot of things outside of our control, cost us a lot of points, and it's been really frustrating.
To be able -- there's a lot of emotions that go away with this because of how hard that has been.
Q. I understand you have a contract. We know how these things go. But we also know that life at Hendrick comes with pressure. Do you feel like you've been in the hot seat as of late and you needed to up your performance to maintain your status with them?
ALEX BOWMAN: I think you need to win races whenever you're at HMS. But certainly nobody has made me feel like I'm on the hot seat. There's never been a single conversation with a single person that has questioned anything to do with that at all. It's all been, what do you need, how can we help you, how can we support the team.
That's the great part about Hendrick Motorsports is whatever the noise is outside, everybody inside is never going to tear each other down. They're always going to be supportive. We've had a lot of support from the other three teams and from everybody at HMS over the last couple years.
Q. As the Cup Series has raced more in wet conditions, how have you as a driver had to evolve through that? Obviously you won this race on wet tires, as well. How have you had to evolve, and what comfort did you feel today?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, it's definitely different. Honestly, I've missed so many of the wet laps. I missed a lot of the race last year, and then I missed all the wet stuff at Loudon. Just trying to learn.
Obviously the first really wet laps today I did a really poor job from Turn 12 to Turn 2, and I hate that.
But I think just constantly trying to learn and search for grip and seeing how the track evolves. Racetrack was pretty dry at the end. But watching how the racetrack gripped up. It's pretty difficult to see the dry line in these cars. The windshield gets so dirty that you can't -- you run the windshield wiper, you're just going to smear it all right, so you're looking through a really dirty windshield trying to find a dry line. It's tough, but it's been a fun learning experience, and yeah, definitely different.
Q. Reddick had said if he doesn't hit the wall chasing you down, he thought he was going there but he didn't know what would have happened when he got there. What do you think that battle could have been like coming into the final couple corners there?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, Tyler and I have raced each other super clean over the years, and we're good pals. Obviously I crashed his teammate earlier in the day, though, so kind of all gloves are off going for a win.
I think it would have been difficult for him to pass. I guess I really don't know because I couldn't see that well how wide the dry line was. If it was two car widths wide getting into 12, yeah, he probably could get me. I do think I turned the pace up quite a bit on the last lap and a half once I realized somebody behind me had slicks and was coming. But yeah, it would have been a really good race.
I smoked the fence a couple times there at the end, too, so definitely giving it all we had.
Q. Joey sang the praises of the city, from the whole week to the race itself to the fans. What's your selling point to the race coming back as the champion, seeing as it's the third year of the contract? What's your selling point about this city?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, it's an incredible event. It's so different than our normal day-to-day race weekends, like staying in a hotel, walking to the racetrack, all the different things. It's super cool. The racetrack is super fun. All the events that go on are super fun. Obviously the city of Chicago, everybody here has been so welcoming. That's been really neat.
I think just seeing people that have never been to races before come here is really cool, and then also the fans that have come to the city to watch the race is great, too.
Obviously it's been two chaotic races with the weather. Maybe we'll get a dry one next year. But yeah, it's been a super fun event and just really a meaningful event to be able to win.
Q. We saw the emotion post-race. We've discussed a lot about your struggles last year and the difficulties personally. Taking the driver out of the equation, how much did Alex Bowman the person need this victory?
ALEX BOWMAN: I don't think I needed it. I just think it feels good to be able to do that.
Gosh, the last Cup race I won, I remember we were in Vegas. We had won a lot pretty recently to that, and we all landed at like 4:00, and every other race we had celebrated and had so much fun with the team and we were all kind of like, nah, it's too late, we don't need to celebrate, we'll celebrate the next one or whatever, and I have regretted that ever since, obviously, so that is not going to happen tonight.
But as a human being, I'm just a dude trying to do my job the best I possibly can, and I see everything that gets said about me. So to be able to overcome what I've gone through and to end up back here, it feels really good. I didn't need it. Certainly a lot in my life that I don't need. I'm just appreciative of it.
But yeah, it feels really good to be here.
Q. Can you basically tell us what you went through after you broke the back? What were the kind of rehab that they put you through? We were on Chase like every week, why aren't you running better. You almost got a hall pass because he's a former champion and had been with the company. Can you take us through what you suffered through to get back to even where you could drive before you got to this place?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah. Honestly, I don't want to make it out like the back injury was like this awful thing. It hurt, but there wasn't a lot I could do.
Everything post-back injury was just pain tolerance. So getting back in the gym was just based on what I could do and what pain I could handle. Like it hurt really bad for two weeks and then started to taper off, and I started to be able to kind of get back mobile again and all that.
I would say the mental side of all of it was much harder than the physical side. The physical side, yeah, I ran the 600 that first race back and I felt great in the car and then I could hardly get out of the race car afterwards and could hardly walk the rest of the week, and there were times it hurt really bad.
But the mental side of just struggling so badly and not running how we expect to run was certainly much tougher than any of the physical stuff could have been.
Q. And also difficult seeing someone else drive the 48?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I mean, I think -- I remember when I got to the hospital in Iowa sitting there, like, knowing that something was wrong and the doctor came in and he's like, I have great news, your neck is totally fine, but you broke your back, and just feeling like I let my whole team down, like I let Ally down and Mr. Hendrick down.
Especially like the concussion stuff, we blow a tire running a Cup car. That's so different than breaking your back going and doing your hobby, right. That felt pretty self-inflicted, and I spent my 30th birthday in the hospital in Burlington, Iowa. It was not a lot of fun.
Yeah, that was tough. I felt like I let them down. But the first thing Mr. Hendrick said is, We'll get through it and whatever you need we're going to get you help with, and everybody was so incredibly supportive.
Life got difficult after that, but yeah, without everybody's support sticking behind me, certainly couldn't have overcome that.
Q. What's your whiskey of choice?
ALEX BOWMAN: Man, let me tell you about how great NASCAR is to us drivers. I got to my hotel room and there was a little box with my name on it that had a bottle of bourbon in it, so that's in my bag. I'm pretty excited about that. But I've got a couple bottles that were bought early in the '22 that were like the next win we're going to drink these, and they've been sitting on the counter way too fucking long.
Everybody that said I couldn't win and don't deserve to be at Hendrick Motorsports and all that bullshit, cheers to you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports