12 Days 'Til Daytona - Today's Featured Driver: Alex Bowman

In case you missed it, StatChat is counting down the days ‘til the 2021 Daytona 500.  Every two days, we will have a new article featuring one of the Top 30 Drivers of 2020. 

 

6th Place – Alex Bowman – 2371 pts

 

By the Numbers:

 

8.8 Average Finish in the Playoffs – In a strange nod to the number on the side of his car, Alex Bowman (who drove the 88 in 2020) performed at a high rate in the playoffs, collecting an 8.8 average finish.  His collective average finish for the entire season was 14.72, but Alex Bowman put on quite a show in the playoffs, with 8 top 10s in the 10 races.

 

3 Top 10s @ the Charlotte Roval – Alex Bowman is not seen as a premiere road course driver.  His career record at road courses amounts to zero wins and an average finish of 15.17.  However, for some reason, Bowman loves the Charlotte Roval.  Over the 3 races that have been run there, Bowman has finished 2nd, 4th, and most recently 8th– 3 top 10s.  With more road courses than ever on the 2021 schedule, maybe Bowman can carry that success over to other road courses.

 

5.81 Positions Lost Per Race – In 2020, Alex Bowman finished races, on average, 5.81 spots worse than his qualifying position.  That may be a bit unfair, as the COVID qualifying procedure became a mathematical formula rather than an on-track run.  Nonetheless, for positions lost/gained in a race, Bowman wound up being the worst of all drivers in 2020. 

  

1 Win in 2020 – The Win-and-You’re-In playoff format has been criticized at times, and Alex Bowman’s 2020 season may be a good example of why.  With his only win of the season coming in the 3rd race, Bowman then had a fairly dismal regular season.  As mentioned above, he seemed to find another gear during the playoffs, but his 9th place average points per race (29.28) might not justify the 6th place finish he wound up with in the end.

 

90 Points More than 2019 – Despite having a worse average finish than in 2019 (which incidentally was his best career year in that category), Bowman finished the 2020 season with 90 more points.  Considering Bowman won 4 stages in 2020 (his first ever career stage wins), it seems Bowman found different ways of collecting points than just finishing position.

 

Alex Bowman has a history of stepping into extremely big shoes.  In 2018, Bowman officially took over the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet from a retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr.  He will continue to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, only this time he will be replacing the retiring Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Chevrolet.

 

Coming up in two days – Kevin Harvick

 

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