Alex Bowman bags his first top 5 of 2021

Alex Bowman finished third in the Folds of honor QuickTrips500. Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Alex Bowman finished third in the Folds of honor QuickTrips500. Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Alex Bowman gets his season back on track with P3 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Alex Bowman needed a good run in Sunday's Folds of Honor QuickTrips 500 at Atlanta after two bad finishes in the last three races, and he got one as he brought his No. 48 Chevrolet home in third place for Hendrick Motorsports.

"Yeah, for sure. It was a good day to come home third. Obviously, the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) would have won, but I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for continuing to bring really fast race cars to the race track," Alex Bowman said during his post-race press conference. " I feel like our Ally Camaro was pretty good. It was just a little bit off on the long-run stuff. But finally, a day where nothing bad happened. We’ll take a good solid day, a solid top 3, and move onto Bristol.”

Alex Bowman started the day in 14th place but moved up to sixth by the time Stage 1 came to an end on lap 55. He then followed that up with a third-place finish in the second stage, which brought him up to a total of 13 stage points and kept his season from going into a free fall after two bad finishes.

Alex Bowman's rough start to 2021

The trouble for Alex Bowman started at Daytona, where he was taken out on the 13th lap after starting from the pole. He did manage a finish of 10th at the Daytona roval the following week, and went one better with P9 in the next race, at Homestead. This moved him up from 36th to 17th in points, but then, a disappointing 27th-place finish at Las Vegas dropped Bowman down to 18th in the standings.

During these ups and downs, Bowman also had to watch two of his teammates - William Byron and Kyle Larson - reach Victory Lane before him.

Fortunately for Alex Bowman, his solid finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway moved him up to 14th in points and put him in contention for the playoffs. Hendrick Motorsports certainly appears to have the upper hand at the 1.5-mile tracks, and it's on Bowman and crew chief Greg Ives to keep holding up their end of the deal.

Edited by Sandeep Banerjee