Dale Earnhardt Jr. <\/strong>in the 88, Bowman\u2019s two best finishes were P13 and P16 at plate tracks driving for lesser teams. The pair were his only two top 20\u2019s in the Cup Series.<\/p>\nBowman\u2019s showed this season, however, that he\u2019s a quick learner.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2019\/05\/untitled-5c-20i_39075985-1-167x300.png\")
<\/p>\n
Even though he didn\u2019t earn a top 10 until Talladega, he used a strong finish on a plate track as a starting point to a hot streak that allowed him to improve on tracks he hadn\u2019t been successful at in the past.<\/p>\n
Before this season, his best finish at Dover was P20. He never finished in the top 15 in a Kansas spring race coming into this season either.<\/p>\n
This stretch has simply been a breakout for the Tucson, Arizona native.<\/p>\n
He even improved on his All-Star Race finish from a DNF in his first season to a P8 finish after winning the Fan Vote last Saturday at Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have momentum from the past three races on our side and I know the guys back at the shop have been working endless hours on these cars,\u201d Bowman said in a weekly release. \u201cHopefully we unload pretty decent on Thursday and can get a good starting spot that night for Sunday\u2019s race.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the only success he\u2019s seen at NASCAR\u2019s \u2018home track,\u2019 either. He crossed the line P4 in the roval race last year on top of a ninth-place finish in the 600. He\u2019s no stranger to success there.<\/p>\n
The race is forecasted to see record high temperatures on Sunday, which will provide a unique challenge to teams. However, if the No. 88 team can keep up the success and momentum this Sunday, it won\u2019t be much of a surprise to see them partying on Memorial Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cDriving 600 miles on Sunday will be tough in this heat, but I don\u2019t think it is the most physically demanding,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI have said it before, but I think Dover is the most physically challenging event that we have. Sunday will be long and hot, but this 88 team can get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2019 Coca Cola 600 is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. ET on FOX. The starting lineup for the race is listed below.<\/p>\n
Coca Cola 600 Starting Lineup
\n<\/strong>1. William Byron
\n2. Aric Almirola
\n3. Kyle Busch
\n4. Austin Dillon
\n5. Kevin Harvick
\n6. Daniel Suarez
\n7. Joey Logano
\n8. Clint Bowyer
\n9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
\n10. Daniel Hemric
\n11. Kurt Busch
\n12. Chase Elliott
\n13. Alex Bowman<\/strong>
\n14. Martin Truex Jr.
\n15. Jimmie Johnson
\n16. Erik Jones
\n17. Paul Menard
\n18. Ryan Newman
\n19. Ryan Blaney
\n20. Denny Hamlin
\n21. Brad Keselowski
\n22. Chris Buescher
\n23. Michael McDowell
\n24. Ryan Preece
\n25. Kyle Larson
\n26. Matt Tifft
\n27. Matt DiBenedetto
\n28. Ty Dillon
\n29. Bubba Wallace
\n30. Corey LaJoie
\n31. David Ragan
\n32. Landon Cassill
\n33. Bayley Currey
\n34. Parker Kligerman
\n35. Ross Chastain
\n36. B.J. McLeod
\n37. Reed Sorenson
\n38. Cody Ware
\n39. Quin Houff
\n40. Joey Gase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three straight second place finishes. That\u2019s what the month of May has brought as far as regular season races go for Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Alex Bowman. It\u2019s the best three-race stretch of Bowman\u2019s career, which still has yet to see a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) victory. It eerily echoes his HMS teammate Chase Elliot\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":6832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[107,61,592,52,59,14],"class_list":["post-6828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-chase-elliott","tag-coca-cola-600","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-hendrick-motorsports","tag-nascar"],"modified_by":"Connor Ferguson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}