NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 12, 2025
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – DAYTONA 500 Media Day Quotes
QUALIFYING ALL THE WAY THROUGH RACE DAY, IS THERE EXTRA PRESSURE GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE SEASON KNOWING THE PAST SUCCESS THAT RICK HENDRICK AND HIS CARS HAVE HAD HERE?
“I feel like there is extra pressure for the 500 because it’s the Daytona 500. It’s not an internal thing, it’s not from Mr. H or Jeff Gordon or anybody. Obviously, they want to win the race as well, but it’s just the Daytona 500. The magnitude of this race creates pressure more than anything.”
“Its just a huge event and everybody knows what the Daytona 500 is and the amount of people here is insane. Gosh, I can remember there have been Sunday mornings here when we turn into zoo animals and kind of get carted around to our appearances and there have been so many people that we have been late to all our appearances because we can’t physically get to and from places quickly enough just from the amount of people. So, its just a crazy event and its our Super Bowl. We have been close, and maybe we can make it happen this year.”
WHAT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN WINNING AND BEING OH SO CLOSE?
“A button push. I mean for me honestly it doesn’t change much, but I have continued to improve my racing stuff on the superspeedways. I feel like we have done a better job lately, our race cars have gotten better, so looking forward to another 500.”
HOW MUCH SLEEP DID YOU LOSE OVER A BUTTON PUSH?
“Not a lot. It’s kind one of those things where you can’t do anything about it situations and yeah, it was what it was. Like unfortunately we didn’t win, but at least a teammate won. 1-2 in the 500 is really cool for Hendrick Motorsports and hopefully this year we can be on the other side of it.”
DOES IT KEEP YOUR CONFIDENCE UP THAT EVERY YEAR YOU HAVE BEEN THERE AND YOUR CAR HAS HAD THE SPEED IN IT?
“Yeah, for sure. I don’t know what we do or don’t have for qualifying tonight, but we have definitely had a lot of good race cars for sure. So just trying to capitalize on that.”
GOING INTO THIS ONE, WHAT IS YOUR GOAL AS FAR AS IF WE CAN ACCOMPLISH THIS, WE CAN AVOID THE WRECKS AND BE IN POSITION?
“Capitalizing on the things you can control and maintaining track position has certainly changed with the fuel saving stuff. With the Next Gen car, you can’t really go from the back to the front like you used to be able to. Lot of things have changed in how the race plays out, but yeah, we will just have to wait and see how the race flows. I think it is important to get stage points obviously, because it’s highly likely you are going to crash in the final stage. So, if you have zero stage points and you crash, it’s pretty sad. So hopefully we can avoid that.”
DO YOU THINK IT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER TO QUALIFY NEAR THE FRONT GIVEN YOU SAID ITS HARDER TO GO FROM THE BACK TO THE FRONT?
“I do. For whatever reason, like when the pace gets wicked up, the third lane dies and its too far around for the Cup cars now. So, for the bottom two lanes, they move around a little bit, but you don’t have that when it gets fast the three wide stuff. So that kind of eliminates opportunity for the most part. There is a lot of opportunity at other times like when you are out there saving fuel and stuff like that. Its just different than it used to be and having track position is certainly key.”
REGARDING GREG IVES WORKING WITH JUNIOR MOTORSPORTS AND SEEING THAT CAR COMPETE
“Yeah, its super cool. Obviously with Greg, he was a big part of my career and so was Dale (Earnhardt Jr.). Excited for Justin (Allgaier), and I know it’s not his first 500, but seeing him back in a Cup car at the Daytona 500 and Dale and Kelly having a Cup car, its pretty cool. Greg is going to bring a lot to that program, a lot of knowledge, experience and a lot of front rows at the Daytona 500. So, we know that thing will go fast.”
LOOKING BACK AT LAST YEAR WITH TRIPS TO VICTORY LANE AND THE UPSWING, HOW DO YOU LOOK AHEAD TO THIS YEAR?
“Yeah, we just need to keep that going. I feel like we are in a good spot, and I have a good group around me. Looking forward to the challenge this year and seeing where we stack up really. It’s how you get going and its really hard to say because this sport ebbs and flows so much. You never know who is going to have what when a season starts, but I am looking forward to seeing where we are at and going from there.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START IN THE FIRST THREE, FOUR, FIVE RACES?
“It’s definitely important. You know last year we were obviously good in the 500 and then we went to Atlanta, and I don’t think we made a whole lap and crashed on lap one. We will just have to wait and see how things go and obviously focus on the things we can control and kind of go from there.”
A COUPLE OF DRIVERS SAID YOU WERE ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED DRIVERS. HOW DO YOU REACT TO THAT?
“I certainly appreciate people saying that and I think for me, I have had a lot of success, but I have also had down years where things haven’t gone how I want them to, and the team wants them to. So, I think I have been on both sides of it for sure and we ended it at a good point last year obviously through a lot of B.S. Hopefully we are on the good side of that. I don’t want to call myself underrated, I just want to go out and win races and I would rather prove it than say it. But, yeah, just got to go do that.”
WHAT IMPROVEMENTS DO YOU THINK THE 48 TEAM MADE IN THE OFFSEASON TO MAKE A DEEPER RUN IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR?
“You know, honestly, I think we were streaky. To start the year we had streaks of really good runs and then we fell off early summer and then we won. But when the Playoffs hit, we were able to step up and find another level and execute at another level for the rest of the year. The last couple probably don’t look like it because we had a couple of issues. We were really as good as anybody in the Playoffs. We were in contention to win right after that penalty which would have put us into the final round if we would have made that happen. We are capable of running at that level and I think we showed that. We need to continue to step up and we need to continue to evolve. We need to continue to run like that all year instead of the last ten. I thought we were definitely in a good place.”
HOW LONG TILL YOU THINK TILL PEOPLE ASK ABOUT YOUR FUTURE?
“It has started two months ago. It never ended. When is it going to end? That is never going to end and that has been my entire career. Yeah, just got to go win some races.”
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