ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:
MODERATOR: You won this race (at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) one year ago. Talk about what you’re looking forward to coming back to Las Vegas this weekend.
“Yeah, for sure. I really enjoy this race track (Las Vegas Motor Speedway). The results may not show it over the years, but it’s definitely been one of my best places. Probably coulda-shoulda-woulda won two or three of them here; backed into one last year. Glad it worked out well and hopefully bring home another trophy like that.”
With what happened to Chase (Elliott), will that make you reevaluate anything that you do outside the racetrack?
“No – I think obviously really unfortunate what happened to Chase (Elliott) and hoping he heals up as quickly as possible. Thinking about him, for sure.
But yeah, until somebody tells me any different, I’m just going to keep doing my thing.”
Did you text or send a message to Chase (Elliott)? A lot of conversations with drivers – you can’t stop living your life, yet you guys have big, important, high-paying jobs. How do you look at that? Hendrick Motorsports says they’re not going to reevaluate what you guys are allowed to do, but how do you think he feels?
“Yeah – I shot him a text, but it’s hard for me to say how he’s feeling. I know what it’s like to miss races; obviously from a little bit different of a situation. But it’s a bummer, for sure, and we all want him back as quickly as possible.
I think – on my side of things – obviously, I race other stuff throughout the year quite a bit and stay pretty busy with that. I really enjoy doing that stuff. I think for me, driving other racecars helps me on Sunday’s. I think that’s something that’s important to me and I plan to keep doing that until somebody says I can’t.”
Watching somebody else drive your race car – what are the emotions with that when you’re watching on T.V. or wherever you are? Do you watch it or do you have to tune it out? How does that process work when you’re not in the car?
“Yeah, for sure it’s definitely not fun, especially since Noah (Gragson) threw up in it like every week (laughs).
But I feel for Chase (Elliott). It’s a really uncomfortable situation. You almost feel like forgotten because obviously everything keeps going, except for you. That’s kind of what it was like for me. I watched every race, with the exception of one, I went to an NFL game. Just something my doctor wanted me to do. Other than that, I watched every week. And yeah, it’s not fun. Obviously went to Martinsville (Speedway) and sat on the pit box for that one. It’s just a weird feeling to be in the racecar every week for so long and be a part of this deal every week for so long, and then realize it goes on even if you don’t. So it’s definitely uncomfortable.”
To kind of turn the tables on that – you know what it’s like to be in Josh’s (Berry) position because you got that shot when Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to be sidelined. What do you think about going in? You are on a major stage being with Hendrick Motorsports and there are no excuses.. is that a fair assessment?
“Yeah, I mean I think it’s a hard situation to step into. Obviously we had some success when I filled in, but it’s really hard. It think it’s only gotten harder with the Next Gen car coming in. The Xfinity car used to be so similar to a Cup car, and now they couldn’t be more different in how they drive and how you can approach how to aggressively drive them. Plus, when I came in, I had a couple years of Cup experience already.
So it’s definitely different, but I think it is a good opportunity for Josh (Berry) to learn and see how Hendrick Motorsports operates; the things that we do and to be part of an organization like that. Even though it’s through a situation that nobody wants, I think it’s something that you can grow as a racecar driver from; learn and show everybody what you’ve got.”
We’re going to your home track next week. What kind of pressure is there and why haven’t more drivers come out of Arizona to run in the top NASCAR series?
“Yeah, a lot of pressure. I feel like I’ve ran poorly at that track (Phoenix Raceway) quite a bit, so I would like just a good, solid day, honestly. If we went and just ran top-10 all day, I’d be pretty happy with how the last five years have gone there.
But as far as why other drivers haven’t come out of Arizona – I think there have been a lot of really talented drivers come up from there, but yeah it’s tough. Coming from the west coast in particular is tougher than the east coast. There’s not as many race tracks there as there used to be. Obviously development has kind of stopped down there.
But yeah, hopefully that changes and we see more drivers come from that area soon.”
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