TALLADEGA, Alabama — Sure, Alex Bowman would have liked to win on Sunday evening at Talladega Superspeedway and celebrate in victory lane for the first time since Chicago in 2024.
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But after the last few years he's had with multiple injuries, as well as a brutal start to 2026, he is just happy to cross the line in third place with a relatively clean car.
"It's a lot of relief to finish," Bowman told media members on pit road after the race. "To finish and not crash. Yeah, the bigger relief for me is not to crash at a place like this.
"I don't have many big hits left in me, and I'm tired of crashing. So, I'm glad that we got through one of these with a strong finish and happy for the team. They've had an incredibly rough go of it, on a lot of angles, the entire season."
Alex Bowman said it felt good to get a top-five finish at Talladega Superspeedway, his best finish of the year.
He added that he's very relieved he didn't crash.
"I don't have many big hits left in me, and I'm tired of crashing." pic.twitter.com/zxbtomJefB— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) April 26, 2026
Bowman's issues this season are well-documented. He crashed in the Daytona 500 and then finished two laps down at EchoPark Speedway. He didn't finish the third race of the season, Circuit of the Americas, due to vertigo.
Bowman then missed four Cup Series races while trying to recover. This process took extended time and visits with multiple specialists. He watched multiple other drivers control the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
The journey did not get any easier once Bowman returned to the car. He crashed in his first race back, which took place at Bristol Motor Speedway. He then finished 18th at Kansas.
Believe it or not, this average day at one of his best tracks was a highwater mark during a frustrating season.
He surpassed it on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. He started 20th after rain washed out qualifying, and he spent the entire first stage aggressively fuel saving.
The turning point of the race came in the second stage. He did not get collected in the 26-car crash that unfolded at the front of the pack, one that knocked teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson out of the race.
Bowman had the opportunity to continue competing, and he scored two stage points. He then began contending for the race win during the final stage, to the point that he lined up on the second row for the restart with three laps to go.
Bowman didn't get the pushes he needed to truly battle race-winner Carson Hocevar for the win. He just stuck to the bumper of the No. 77 and kept a Chevrolet teammate moving toward the checkered flag.
CARSON HOCEVAR WINS AT TALLADEGA! pic.twitter.com/5B6WQFi87T
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 26, 2026
"Really the biggest thing is to push him out far enough where he feels like he needs to defend the top line and start playing both sides of that, right," Bowman said when asked what he could have done differently. "Once he starts moving, then maybe there's an opportunity there to get clear there, but it didn't happen.
"And yeah, I don't think there was ever an opportunity to move up — which I don't know that I would have moved up. Statistically, these races are typically won from the bottom here at the end. Hard to say if I could have done anything different, but I felt like we executed everything we needed to that last run."
This served as more of a strategic move, one that kept Bowman in contention for a strong finish. Instead of ending the night in the infield care center, he just left Talladega and headed back to North Carolina. More importantly, he locked up 37 crucial points.
