NASCAR CUP SERIES
2025 PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
AUGUST 27, 2025
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Media Availability Quotes:
What was going through your mind the last few laps (Saturday)? Because you’re watching on TV the back-and-forth, back-and-forth, who’s in, who’s out, and you’re sitting there watching the whole thing.
“Nerve-wracking for sure, but at the same time everything that we’ve been able to do this summer and as strong as we’ve been able to run… obviously you want to be in the playoffs, but when it’s that much out of your control and there’s nothing you can do, you also can’t let it absolutely ruin your year if something outside of your control happens. So that was kind of the mindset going down and kind of the mindset that we carried through that.”
Do you feel relieved now or more stressed?
“I would say I feel the same. It’s not really a relief because you have to go get right back to work. It’s the same high-pressure situation that we were in before. We really need to go perform each and every week.
Do you think you have something to prove?
“Yes and no. Obviously it would be amazing to go win a championship. And I feel like we’ve got a race team that can definitely contend right now. We’re going to do all we can to make it happen. But I don’t drive race cars to prove anything to anybody anymore. I’m here to do my job for Hendrick Motorsports and to go perform at a high level every week.”
You said going in that you were stressed. Is that the most mentally and physically just wrapped up that you’ve ever been?
No, I mean, mentally it was a lot to sit there, right? It’s a very uncomfortable situation and your anxiety and stress is spiked through the roof at that point. But past that, it kind of was what it was. It was just so much out of your control. The last couple of laps, there was so much going on… our teammates were leading and then they got shuffled back and then the 12 was in the picture. With all that going on, it was such a range of emotions that that kind of made it probably a lot more so than just one non-winner leading the whole time. That kind of made it up and down. It was a weird thing to sit through.”
Given the uncertainty of the last few weeks, have you and the team prepared as if you were going to be in the playoffs?
“I don’t think anything changes. You’re preparing at a high level for the last eight months and continuing to prepare at a high level for this week the same as we did last week and the week before. So while it’s certainly not like a ramp up, because we’re already there, we’re just kind of going to work… business as usual.”
What about Darlington? How do you look at that race?
“Yeah, it’d be nice to win, but it hasn’t been the best place for me. We’ve been pretty hit and miss there. I think we were running eighth or ninth last spring, and I hit the fence and broke a toe link, so got to avoid that, right? That’s the biggest thing about Darlington for me is just avoiding mistakes and racing the racetrack and kind of letting the rest happen. If we can just put together solid weeks through this first round, we should be okay.”
Do you think part of it is not being overzealous? You know, that adrenaline kicks in, it’s the first race of the playoffs…
“Darlington’s an easy place to make mistakes. It’s such a long night, a lot of opportunities for mistakes, a high-risk level racetrack in general. So trying to limit those is definitely important.
What feels like your biggest strength and your biggest weakness heading into the playoffs.
“The biggest strength is the momentum that we have behind us… the year that we’ve been able to put together, the speed that we’ve had at some racetracks that I’ve been pretty bad at before. At Homestead, we’ve never been good and we almost won. Richmond, we’ve been pretty bad with the Next-Gen car and we were strong there. So I think that shows me that we can go to places that we haven’t been good at before and be really strong. The lack of playoff points is probably our biggest weakness, but the field’s pretty wide open.”
Inaudible.
“I feel like that has been our baseline throughout the year. That’s where we started the year. We were pretty good on points, then we crashed for like two months straight and then kind of got back to it. I felt like our team had a lot of growth going into the playoffs last year and got a lot better. Just knowing that we can do it. Obviously the DQ (in 2024 at Charlotte) was unfortunate, but we were able to execute at a high level the next week when we went to Vegas and contended for the win there. So it didn’t shut us down by any means and we have to continue to work hard.”
Do you feel like you guys are in a better position this year to go out and take a run around the last year?
“We have momentum going into the playoffs, which we’ve never really had before. So I do think we’re in a better position. The lack of playoff points is tough, but we’ll continue working hard at it.”
If you had to pick one element that is the most important going into this first round, what would that be.
“Consistency, just continuing to execute through these first three races, right? It’s three tough racetracks where a lot can happen. And, really, I think you can ‘consistency’ your way to the Round of Eight pretty solidly. Past that, you’ve got to win races. But, yeah, I think continuing to do what we’ve been doing.”
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