![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1422565970-e1666972482883.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Alex Bowman has announced his return to the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet. <\/p>\n
Alex Bowman heads into this weekend\u2019s elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway<\/a> in a tough spot, and that\u2019s putting it lightly. Two back-to-back pit stop disasters have thrown his playoff run into danger, and now he\u2019s 35 points below the cutline.<\/p>\n According to Cameron Richardson of NASCAR.com<\/a>, \u201cA disastrous 40-second pit stop at Darlington Raceway and another slow stop last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway have set back Bowman entering Saturday\u2019s first-round elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) and now faces a virtual must-win situation down 35 points<\/a> to the cutline.\u201d<\/p>\n Costly Pit Stops Force Major Crew Changes<\/p>\n The ripple effect of those slow stops has been immediate\u00a0 and massive. Hendrick Motorsports<\/a> (HMS) made the call to overhaul Bowman\u2019s pit crew heading into Bristol. Several members were moved to other teams, and new crew members have been shuffled in to try to give the No. 48 team a fighting chance.<\/p>\n Alex Bowman admitted he wasn\u2019t deeply involved in the decision-making. \u201cI wasn\u2019t super involved in it, had some conversations, but not super deeply involved in it,\u201d he said Friday at Bristol<\/a>. \u201cThose guys have been super fast at points throughout this year, and they\u2019re all really great athletes and do a good job. We\u2019ve just had a bad two weeks at a time that we can\u2019t have a bad two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n For Bowman, it\u2019s not about blaming individuals, it\u2019s about execution. A 40-second stop at Darlington derailed a solid run. The Gateway mishap piled on the pressure. Now, with the playoff clock ticking, the team had to act quickly to stop the bleeding.<\/p>\n Bowman called the past two weeks \u201cembarrassing,\u201d adding, \u201cWe had a really good summer, and the switch turned off for us, for sure. It\u2019s kind of mortifying how bad we\u2019ve been. It\u2019s not from a lack of effort, like everybody\u2019s working so hard at HMS, and our whole team is. We\u2019ve just not put days together like we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n Bristol Becomes a Must-Win Moment for Alex Bowman<\/p>\n With his playoff hopes fading, Alex Bowman knows there\u2019s no room for caution now. Sitting 35 points back means points racing isn\u2019t an option, only a win can save his season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really not that different what we normally would,\u201d Alex ex Bowman said. \u201cWe\u2019re in such a tough spot, it\u2019s almost less stressful, right? It\u2019s not like we\u2019re really close to the cutline and you\u2019re trying to make sure you don\u2019t make any mistakes. We got to make something happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Mentally, he admits it\u2019s been rough. \u201cMentally going through these last couple of weeks has not been a fun time for me\u2026 Just trying to run the best we can this weekend and be as prepared as I can be to go out there and do my job.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the changes, Bowman still has respect for his former pit crew members. \u201cI\u2019m definitely friends with all those guys and appreciative for all their hard work\u2026 It wouldn\u2019t surprise me one bit if they had an amazing day on pit road on the 77 car and looked really good.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s all on Bowman. One race. One shot. And if he wants his playoff dream to survive, Bristol has to be the place it all turns around.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/a> is a sports writer who covers NASCAR, Formula 1 and IndyCar Series for Heavy Sports. With bylines at Total Apex Sports and Last Word on Sports, Wilberforce has built a reputation for delivering timely, engaging coverage that blends sharp analysis with accessible storytelling. Wilberforce has covered everything from major football transfers to fight-night drama, bringing readers the insight and context behind the headlines. More about Dogli Wilberforce<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Alex Bowman has announced his return to the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet. Alex Bowman heads into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-141238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}