Meet Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

What was your first car and how long did you own it?
A 2006 Chevy Cobalt. I owned it from 2009 until the end of 2014.
 
Did you ever work on it?
I thought it was so cool. It was tricked out. Super loud. It went a whole lot of nowhere. It was stupidly low. Coilovers, suspension stuff, different wheels, different exhaust, audio stuff, the brakes. We wrapped it, changed the color.
 
Did it have a rear spoiler?
No. It was front wheel drive. You don’t need any downforce. The car made like 114hp. It was pretty slow. I packed up all my stuff in it and I moved to North Carolina.
 
What do you drive now?
A Tahoe RST.  It’s bigger, actually faster, it’s pretty nice. I have a 2010 Corvette ZR-1, which is actually my sunny day, daily, driver.
 
What is your dream car?
I feel like, for me, I don’t really like to leave anything alone. So for me my Corvette makes well over 1,000hp. I’m pretty content with that. There’s nothing that I really want because I’m really happy with that.
 
Spotify or Pandora?
Spotify for sure. I’m not trying to skip songs I want to pick songs that I want to listen to.
 
In the car what music do you listen to?
Depends what I’m driving. In the Corvette there’s not a whole lot of music getting played because it’s not quiet.  It gets noisy. Trying to breath because it runs on alcohol. It’s a fun car. In the Tahoe I’m really into harder rock, metal stuff.
 
 
What is your favorite road trip?
One that I do every year. I go to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Chili Bowl. So I drive the truck and trailer and it’s a lot of fun. Been on a lot of road trips that weren’t so much fun.
 
Favorite food?
I’m like a sandwich person. Some kind of sandwich I’m typically good with. I’m not too picky when I’m on the road.
 
Favorite beverage:
I drink a lot of water. I’m not a big soda drinker.
 
Where would you like to drive?
I want to do a road trip through Europe in the winter. I’m into abandoned stuff. There’s some towns that are completely modern and completely abandoned, just from growth and shrinking of the economy caused pretty interesting things.  It would be cool to see that.
 
Have you been to ghost towns out West?
I really haven’t. I’ve been to a few places around here (North Carolina) like where they filmed the Hunger Games. It was pretty neat.
 
What is something about you that most people don’t know?
I’m a pretty regular guy. I’m really mechanically inclined. I grew up in an automotive family so I work on my own stuff. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.
 
 
So that leads to a NASCAR racing question. When your crew chief says come in for tires, but you don’t want to come for tires. Who wins?
Crew chief. He’s way smarter than me.
 
Did you study engineering?
I didn’t. I always said I wanted to. When it came down to it I didn’t think I was smart enough. I’m on the mechanic side of things; cussing an engineer for what he designed and how hard it was to work on it.
 
Early heroes?
Sprint Car/midget (car) guys. There are a lot of talented guys that are down to Earth real people. That’s what makes the open wheel dirt stuff really special.
 
 
Frustration about being on the road?
Slow people that ride in the left lane. That’s the worst thing ever. I get so frustrated.
 
If you couldn’t be racing what would you be doing?
Probably something automotive. Mechanic or paint shop. My dad owned a body shop that did a lot of prep work, paint work. Or video production.

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About the Contributor
Lewis Franck
Apr 6, 2018

In a career spanning over thirty years, Lewis Franck, a former New York attorney, has covered motorsports first as a photographer working for magazines such as Sport Magazine and magazines in Europe. Subsequently switching to writing Franck had a monthly column in Inside Sports, and later worked regularly for Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine. He's been a weekly columnist for Sports Illustrated's website and blogs and moderated chats at ESPN.com. Currently, he's a regular guest on PRN's Pit Reporters and can be heard on SiriusXMNASCAR.

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Tags: NASCAR, Racing

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