Toby's Take: It's Time to Take Alex Bowman Seriously as a Championship Contender

Since he moved to Hendrick Motorsports full-time in 2018, it feels like the "cool" thing to do has been to make jokes about Alex Bowman. Whether it's about how he "backs into" race wins, or simply isn't matching the overall performance of his teammates, Bowman has suffered the brunt of a lot of unjust smear campaigns on social media over the last few years.

Hell, heading into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, instead of getting a chance to talk about and assess his chances at competing for the Bill France Cup, Bowman was forced to field questions about persistent, and unfounded rumors, that he would be replaced as the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in 2025.

"They'll keep talking," Bowman said of his doubters following Saturday night's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I'm not worried about it."

Truthfully, he shouldn't be.

Despite all of the noise, Bowman, as he has throughout his entire eight-win NASCAR Cup Series career, tuned it all out through the opening round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. By the end of the three-race Round of 16, the driver of the No. 48 was No. 1 when it comes to points scored.

Seriously, it wasn't even super close.

Beginning at Atlanta Motor Speedway, continuing at Watkins Glen International, and finishing up at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bowman amassed 120 championship points. The next closest Playoff contender was Christopher Bell, who registered 103 points.

While the Grid has been reset, Bowman now takes his spot near the bottom of the heap in 11th. However, while he comes into the Round of 12 with a points deficit, he also comes into the round with distinct confidence.

Bowman now has confidence that he will return to the No. 48 car next season, as Rick Hendrick put those rumors fully to bed when asked about the situation at a press conference announcing Kyle Larson's 2025 Indianapolis 500 bid last month.

He also has the confidence of knowing that if he can replicate what he did in the opening round of the Playoffs, he'll likely be moving on to the Round of 8 of the Playoffs.

"Yeah, proud of this No. 48 Ally Camaro team. We did what we needed the whole first round of the playoffs, but also we want to be better and continue that through the next round," Bowman explained.

While he should be confident in the momentum that he built through the Round of 16 of the Playoffs, the Arizona native should also have confidence in his past track record at Kansas Speedway.

Without question, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson will be the two favorites to win Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas, as they have both collected a win at the track since the NASCAR Cup Series adopted the Next Gen car in 2022 and in the five races at Kansas in the Next Gen era, Hamlin has an astonishing average finish of 2.8, while Larson's average finish is a nearly equally impressive 3.4.

However, who do you think sits with the third-best average finish at Kansas Speedway since 2022? Guess again, it's Alex Bowman with a 7.5 average finish.

While Bowman was unable to compete in the Spring 2023 event at Kansas due to a broken back sustained in a crash in a dirt racing event, he has yet to finish outside of the top 10 at Kansas Speedway in the Next Gen car.

Not only has he shown the ability to get good finishes, but in the Fall of 2022, Bowman flashed that he has what it takes to win an event at the track as well.

He started third, led a race-high 107 laps, and won Stage 2 before ultimately finishing fourth in that edition of the Hollywood Casino 400. Bowman should be considered a prime candidate to pull off a surprise finish, or what would be considered by many as a surprise finish, in Sunday's race.

In a season, where he's hardly garnered any headlines, aside from when he picked up the win in the Chicago Street Race, Bowman has quietly put together what could potentially end up being his best season in the NASCAR Cup Series to date.

With seven races remaining in the 2024 campaign, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet is just one top-five finish away from tying his career-high which was set with eight in 2021. He also has 14 top-10 finishes, which is just two shy of his career-high of 16, which was also set in 2021.

There's a very good chance that Bowman resets both of those personal bests down the stretch in the Playoffs, and from there the sky could be the limit as he and crew chief Blake Harris have shown they can go on sustained runs of greatness.

Earlier this year, Harris and Bowman combined to secure five consecutive top-10 finishes from Talladega in April to Charlotte in June. Prior to Bowman's back injury last year, the driver and crew chief in their first season of working together, opened the year with six top-10 finishes in their first seven races.

If Bowman can keep the momentum rolling, it'll soon no longer be cool to question the driver's future. Instead, it'll become the thing to do to proclaim him as a bonafide NASCAR Cup Series championship contender.

Photo Credit: Tyson Gifford, Racing America