“They’re incredibly fast”: Alex Bowman admits to HMS' inferiority against Team Penske, bluntly says they have a “lot of work to do”

Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was recently featured in a post-race interview with NASCAR analyst Bob Pockrass. During the interaction, the duo discussed the Team Penske cars having an edge during the championship four race at Phoenix Raceway.

During the 2024 Cup Series champion title race at Phoenix Raceway, Team Penske driver Joey Logano qualified in P2 with just a 0.01-second gap from the pole-sitter, Martin Truex Jr. Meanwhile, HMS driver Kyle Larson was in P4, followed by his teammates Chase Elliott in P5, William Byron in P8, and Alex Bowman in P16.

The #22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse driver took the lead from Truex Jr. and won stage one of the race. Following that, Logano's teammate, Ryan Blaney, dominated and won stage two. Meanwhile, William Byron was the only HMS driver in the top five drivers.

With his pace, Joey Logano secured his third Cup Series championship title, and his teammate Ryan Blaney finished as the runner-up, showcasing Ford's dominance on the track. Reflecting on the Team Penske dominance, Alex Bowman told Bob Pockrass (via FoxSports):

"We've really struggled there [at Phoenix], but at the same time, we — to be blunt — just have a lot of work to do there, to catch the Penske cars. They're incredibly fast there."

"We have been getting to work, trying to improve that stuff. So a lot of smart people back at HMS working on it." Bowman added.

Team Penske driver Austin Cindric finished the 2025 edition of the Cook Out Southern 500 ahead of all the Hendrick Motorsports drivers. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were the only HMS drivers to finish within the top 20. William Byron crossed the finish line in P21; meanwhile, Alex Bowman wrapped up the event in P31.

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"Feel like we should have won by now": Alex Bowman got candid about being the lone winless HMS driver in the 2025 season

In August 2025, ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, Alex Bowman was featured in an interview with Racer.com. During the pre-race interview, the HMS driver candidly talked about his feelings of being the lone driver in his team with no wins this season.

The #9 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver, Chase Elliott, secured his first win at the second Atlanta Motor Speedway race. Followed by Kyle Larson with three wins and William Byron with two wins in 27 starts this season. Meanwhile, Bowman has yet to secure a win.

The #48 driver came close to winning a race on multiple instances but never crossed the finish line in the first place. He finished the Homestead-Miami Speedway race as runner-up behind Larson. He also secured two P3 finishes at Atlanta and Dover. Followed by another P2 at Richmond Raceway.

Reflecting on the same, Alex Bowman told the media house:

“Yeah, I feel like we should have won by now, and we’ve been close. Homestead, we were close. Richmond, we were close. I think we had a car very capable of winning Texas if we didn’t crash, which was totally out of our control. Kansas, we were capable of winning before we got damaged. So, we’ve had plenty of races that we’ve had winning cars. But unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out for us this season. We haven’t had that perfect day yet."

Alex Bowman ranks 15th in the Cup Series points table with 2008 points to his credit. He has secured six top-five finishes and 14 top-ten finishes in 27 starts this season.