Kevin Harvick commends Alex Bowman gutty performance through pain amid struggles

It couldn’t have been a comfortable ride for Alex Bowman inside his No. 48 Chevrolet during Sunday’s race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. Just seven days prior, Bowman hit the wall head-on at a high rate of speed at Michigan International Speedway.

He admitted he could not walk on Wednesday: “Running well probably made it easier than it could have been. Just proud of the whole team. I put us behind this week. In full transparency, I couldn’t walk on Wednesday, so I missed all my sim stuff, all my meetings. Just trying to get back going.”

And yet, Bowman gutted it out and scored a P4 finish at Mexico City. Kevin Harvick complimented the Hendrick Motorsports driver for his gusty performance.

“Gutted it out, and sometimes when you get into those scenarios where you’re kind of not feeling good or you’re hurt, and you have to gut those things out, you get so focused on not letting that affect you, that you become hyper focused on doing everything right,” Harvick said on Tuesday’s Happy Hour podcast. “It was a good day for the 48 to overcome all the things he had to deal with from himself physically. We talked a lot about the altitude in Mexico City being so high, so we knew all the drivers were gonna be taxed in their scenario.

“I think the 48 team — they show flashes of brilliance in moments like this where we know they can go out and win races and do what they need to do. But they’re very inconsistent, and good for Alex going out there and making it through the weekend and having a good result to go with it.”

Alex Bowman fights through the pain at Mexico City

Bowman needed that one. Before Mexico City, he had finished 27th or worse in seven of his last nine starts. He had fallen to 13th in the points standings and was firmly on the playoff bubble. Now, Bowman is 12th and 22 points clear.

Bowman has some wiggle room, but not much. With 10 regular season races remaining, Harvick believes Bowman needs to be in must-win mode.

“They can’t count points,” Harvick said. “You look at [Chase] Briscoe, Bowman, [Chris] Buescher — all those guys behind them… those guys got to be thinking about winning. There’s 10 races left and really, their only opportunity to get into the playoffs is a win, at this point.”