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Alex Bowman will be among the 16 playoff drivers turning laps today at the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The 29-year-old was the third Cup driver to enter the 2022 playoffs after he won the Las Vegas race back in February. With NASCAR’s regular season done and dusted, the playoffs are scheduled to kick off this weekend on Sunday, the 4th of September, at Darlington Raceway.
Bowman and his fellow Cup drivers will enter this year’s playoffs with a new car, the Next Gen car. The car made its debut earlier this year, and so far, it has proved to be one of the safest cars in NASCAR's history. Despite being one of the safest racing cars, several drivers have experienced different challenges, from painful hits to unforgiving suspensions.
Answering a question in a media interview on how he’ll approach the Darlington race with the new car, Bowman said that his main focus at the 'Lady in Black' would be to prevent his #48 from catching fire like last time. In his statement, Bowman said:
“The body is forgiving, but the suspension is unforgiving, and then it catches on fire. So, trying to avoid that because that is what got us the last Darlington race.. it decided to catch on fire on the right front. Hopefully we can avoid that. But yeah, just knowing that if you hit the wall a little bit you have more room for error than you did with the old car for sure.”
He added:
“Darlington is a place that you have to attack. You can’t just layover and try to survive. If you do that, then I feel like you kind of have a little bit of a lack in focus and don’t end up running well and its easier to make mistakes. We have to go run well and there is no way around it. You just have to go execute.”
Kurt Busch is one of the drivers who has encountered a painful hit that led to him being sidelined from the track for four consecutive events. Alex Bowman has faced a different challenge with the car. According to Bowman, the car also catches fire apart from the unforgiving suspensions.
Alex Bowman returns to 'The Track Too Tough To Tame' for the second time this season
Even though Alex Bowman will hit the playoffs with a new car, it will not be the first time the Next Gen car will do laps at Darlington Raceway. NASCAR visited the track mid-this year on the 8th of May.
The event, however, didn’t pan out as Bowman had expected after the track became too tough to tame, retiring early from the event and recording a DNF. During the event, his #48 Ally Chevy Camaro ZL1 decided to catch fire on the right front.
Though he hasn’t encountered such a problem again, Alex Bowman hopes things won’t go south when he lands in South Carolina. The Hendrick Motorsports driver will arrive at “The Track Too Tough To Tame” with three consecutive top 20 finishes in the past three races. He first recorded a 20th finish at Richmond, then two consecutive 14th finishes at Watkins Glen and Daytona.
Alex Bowman knows a lot is at stake in the playoffs this weekend, and drivers race each other pretty hard, so he’ll be putting in the extra effort. The best thing about him is that he hasn’t made on-track enemies that will be hunting him down.
