Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Alex Bowman Interview

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

In this special episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Kevin catches up with Alex Bowman for an in-depth conversation about his offseason, his outlook for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series season, and more. This is the full interview from the Harvick Goes Drifting feature, now available on the NASCAR on FOX YouTube channel! Don’t miss this exclusive, unfiltered discussion with one of NASCAR’s top drivers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. And this week's interview is with Alex Bowman. And if any of you have watched the full drifting feature on YouTube, this is actually the full version of the interview that I was able to spend some time with Alex and really get to know him off the racetrack and who he is as a person. Because I had no idea how hands-on Alex Bowman was with his race cars and the things that he does off the racetrack. I hope you find this to be very educational and learn a little bit about Alex Bowman. We're taking a break because the tires are worn out and we had to put some new tires on it. It gave us a good time to catch up with Alex. And first, that is by far the most fun I've ever had sitting in a passenger seat of anything.

That's awesome. And, you know, I think this whole thing started at really your highest point last year after you won Chicago. We came back and every week we do a little critique on the burnouts. And I believe in that order, I believe that SVG, well, I know he did. SVG had already gone and done the whole drifting thing around the racetrack. Yeah, like Portland, right? It was at Sonoma. Sonoma, yeah.

At Sonoma, and he had the bird hanging out the window. Yep, I didn't do that. It was pretty epic. And, you know, your lap was a little shaky at the first part of lap. And then we didn't see the second part of lap. Second part of the lap was better. You said it was pretty good. It was better.

First part was pretty bad. But for me sitting in the booth and being able to spend time with you a little bit here today and just talk to you, it's not something that I've had a lot of time to do. But I've learned a lot about you as a person and a race car driver today. And I think that's important for people to know. I mean, you grew up working on your cars and building things and building this car and you take your Chili Bowl cars to the Chili Bowl. every year.

Is that something that you obviously enjoy just because of being able to do all that in the past? Yeah, I mean, I miss, I think that's the biggest thing I miss about cup racing is like obviously I can't work on the car, right? So having something to tinker on, whether it's Chili Bowl cars, this car, other projects that I have going on at my shop,

I love the mechanical side of working on cars, working on race cars. It came from the necessity of doing it growing up, but... Just to get to the track. Just to get to the racetrack, right? But now, like, I mean, when it comes to a chili wall with the midgets, like, I enjoy working on them more than I enjoy driving them. Like, that's why everybody's like, oh, why don't you race chili?

And, like, I enjoy spinning renches all week and making the calls as a crew chief. So, yeah, I think it's just something that I've always enjoyed doing. and the drift car makes a lot of fun too because they are always broken. There's always something to work on. If it's broke, that means it costs you money too. So you still got to make sure the driving part stays pretty good. When I look back at Chicago last year,

and I was a race fan at that point sitting at home watching on the couch after our season was over, the emotion that you had after that race with everything that you had gone through with the injury, and you guys were on a roll before you had the injury and everything was happening, And not to say you had a bad year, but you know, you went to Chicago, won the race. What was that, what was all that emotion about?

Was it the recovery from the injury or just knowing that you were back on the top, the pressure? What was, what was all that motion about? Yeah, I mean, all of the above, right? Like two injuries and really to end, really to end 22 and then to start 23 with back-to-back injuries. And then struggle for the second half of 23, you know, not win like we're accustomed to. do. There's a lot of pressure that comes along with that. Internally and externally, like, I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think I am way harder on myself than Mr. Hendrick or Jeff Gordon

or anybody else is ever going to be able to be. Like, I expect more from myself than anybody else is going to expect. So when I'm not winning races and we're not performing like we need to, like I'm, I feel it just from my side of things. But yeah, I mean, just to overcome the injuries and the lack of performance and all the different things, it all kind of came into one winning there in Chicago. And, yeah, it was super emotional. Like, I didn't really know what to do or say.

You know, as a race car driver, you never want to second guess yourself, but you go a year without winning. And it's difficult. And you start to think, well, you know, I did have a brain injury and I did break my back. Like, what if those things changed me as a race car driver? To overcome that stuff meant a lot and yeah, it was a fun time. Yeah, and then you know you go further into the year and you guys very consistent running how you needed to run. You have the penalty at the Roval and you got to deal with all that. And you know, I think as you go into the end of the year, it kind of takes the steam out of the sales.

So how do you reset yourself over the winter to say, okay, I know I can go to Victory Lane. You ran, I mean, over the last three years, I don't know why you would have a lack of confidence in yourself, because you guys have run really well. Yeah. With this car, it's much more up and down. Would you agree? For sure. I mean, it just comes and goes a lot. You know, I think the penalty in the middle of the playoffs, like, we still went to Vegas the next week and contended for the win.

You know, we still, we didn't let that ruin our year or ruin the rest of our playoffs. Like we had a mechanical failure at Martinsville and then we struggled a little bit at Phoenix, but we still did a lot of good things after that, you know, and ran really well. So, yeah, I mean, it was a bummer to go out that way, but this off season really, it's been a bit of a reset for us, but I'm not sure we really needed it. Like we're in a good spot, and I think we're going to continue to be in a really good spot with the 48 team. We have a good group of guys, a couple changes here and there, but I'm looking forward to this season. And I think, you know, with the momentum we had at the end of the year, we showed we can run as well as anybody.

And there's no reason we can't go out and get the job done this year. When you're able to be a part of an organization like Hendrick, and you have that stability from within, and you have that support, that's got to make it easier in certain situations. And you talk about carrying the pressure of the organization and everything that goes with that. Have you gotten over that part of it yet, or is it you talk about it because of the injuries? But up until that point, had you kind of gotten over that part because you were winning races and doing the things that you need to do? At times, for sure. Like when things are good, they're great.

And then, you know, like you said, it's a lot of ups and downs. And it's always easy when you're on the upside of things. It's how you kind of bounce back from the downsides. And yeah, I mean, I think we're in a really good spot. And for me, like, the way my career path went, it's really hard for me to, like, like I feel like an imposter somewhat, right? Because it was always scratching and cloned to get, you know, one-off opportunities here and there and some good Xfinity cars,

like for junior motorsports and trying to do more with less for some really small cup teams. And to be at a team like Kendrick Motorsports, it's like you've got to pinch yourself every now. And then for me, like it's so... So do you still catch yourself in that mode every once in a while trying to scratch and scrape to get every and forget? Yeah. It gets hard, it's hard to go and be kind of starting parkish to win in races and

and then run middle of the pack and say, okay, today I need to grind out of 15th thing. Yeah, I mean, I went from the smallest team in the cup garage to the biggest team in the cup garage. It was a hell of a transition. It was a really big transition and I think, you know, the way I grew up, always working on my own stuff, always, you know, I wasn't going to the racetrack and like with brand new race cars, right? I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was always kind of the scrappy, like trying to do more with less guy. And I feel like that's kind of still programmed into me, which is weird going to work at Hendrick Motorsports, right? Because that is the polar opposite, right?

Like Mr. Hendrick gives us absolutely everything we need to be successful. So, you know, that's a little different for me, but it's just, you know, appreciative of the opportunities. And like I said, he gives us no reason we can't go get the job done. How was Rick through this hole? I mean, I've been through not anything on a day-to-day basis with him, but how was he going through the injury and everything that he went through? Extremely supportive. I mean, the one that stands out to me is just, like, when I broke my back, knowing that I had to make that phone call and knowing that I did it, like not in a cup car, I did it doing an extracurricular activity, right? Like, you never want to make that phone call, and he was extremely supportive.

immediately. Like I, there was, I mean, he did absolutely everything he could to help in every circumstance and there was never like a pressure to get back in the car or pressure like a timeline, like you need to do this or like you need to be winning again by this. Like he through the whole thing was extremely supportive. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports was. So just getting to work with Mr. H and Jeff Gordon and everybody. They definitely were really kind to me through that and I'm glad to be back on the good side of the house. So is Jeff an office guy? Does he sit at his desk? Does he ever leave his desk? I don't know that I've ever seen him at his desk.

Okay. That's good. I hope that's what you say because that's how I view it. He tells me he likes the marketing side. Yeah. I don't buy it. I could see him. So I, we call the marketing side of Hendrick Motorsports Carpet land because they all have carpet in their offices out there. I could see him hanging out up there in Carpet Land for sure. But I try to stay out of the marketing side of the carpetland for sure. there because whenever I go on carpet land, they make me work.

That's the worst. Yeah, like, they have a studio up there, so it'll be reading liners before I know it, and just got to get out of that and stay at a racetrack. What did you do to reset yourself besides the Chili Bowl over the offseason? Vacations, anything? I went to Colorado for like a week, but honestly, I mean, Chili Bowl, I did everything. Like, I did all, I mounted, grooved, ground, 44 tires to go to the racetrack. I built four race cars.

I loaded the truck and trailer, did everything. So that was my offseason, was turning wrenches. But to me, I wouldn't have it any other way. Like, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because I loved every second of it. Well, that's the part that people need to know about you is that that's that hardcore racer that a lot of people don't know about a lot of you guys is the fact that you guys know how to work on your own car and you know how to go to the racetrack and you enjoy it. And I think when you look at going into the 25-7s, you know, when you look at the going into the 25

season what's the one thing that you said okay this is what I need to do better personally to be up to speed at it with a short track physically what what is that one thing that you've worked on honestly I think probably trying to kind of rearrange my schedule stuff to be a little more prepared just trying to enhance some of the preparation side of things spend a little more time with the guys during the week like obviously I'm kind of all over like we do a lot with Ally throughout the week. We're in Miami yesterday and kind of like always doing something, but just trying to make sure that I spend enough time with the guys all the time throughout

the week to be as prepared as we can be. I think there are some tracks I got to work on myself. I'm pretty terrible at Loudon, so we need to figure that place out. Just in this car or in both cars? Both car. I'm pretty sure we could take the drift car there, and I wouldn't be able to drive it there either. So yeah, I don't, I'm terrible there and I'm terrible at Gateway. So we got to get that figured out, get our Phoenix program figured out. But other than that, I think we're in a good spot. We've got the Daytona 500 pole thing figured out. Yeah. You were close last year with everything that went down at the end. And what, what's the to you, what is the difference between going to

Daytona and every other race. I always thought that taking the green flag at the Daytona 500, it was the only race of the year what made the hair on my arms stand up coming to the green. Yeah, it's just the magnitude of the event, like the amount of people, it's insane. That was my first cup race was the Daytona 500 and just like the amount of people and all the festivities going on and everything that that race means. It's incredible. Like I was an open-wheel guy growing up I went to a lot of sprint car midget races. So, you know, obviously the Indy 500 is huge, but the Daytona 500 is just unlike anything else. It's incredible and just thankful that we've been close to winning it.

Hopefully we can get the job done this year. That's a good one to win. I think you mentioned the Indy 500. Any interest in driving one of those cars? Oh, gosh. I've really enjoyed watching Kyle do it. That's been super cool. I would love to, right?

it'd be an honor to get to drive an indie car around the speedway. Not race it, though. I mean, I... The double, maybe, anywhere? I don't know that anybody wants me to run the double. I'd have to... I think you underestimate yourself. When you go back and you look at the consistency that you have,

you know, I think you need to believe in yourself a little bit more because you've dealt with a lot and come back and had some great results that go along with that. So, you know, I think you would... I think you would do just final. Yeah, it'd be fun. It'd be super fun. Yeah, I mean, the month of May in that town is incredibly special. I have a feeling that this next question is going to be probably a better answer than most, I hope. But we always end the show with our guest and asking them what their first car was. What was yours?

So my father and I bought a 2006 Chevy Cobalt from a salvage auction. It had been stolen and like somebody knocked the oil pan off of it when they stole it. Thankfully they didn't keep running it, so we put an oil pan on it and sent it. And it was a manual transmission, which I loved. And I ended up moving to North Carolina in that car. I loaded up all my stuff in the winter. It would have been like beginning in January because I stopped at Chili Bowl, ran Chili Bowl in between, and then moved the rest of the way here.

I had lowered it. It was super loud. It had the dumb stereo. I had spent every dime that I possibly had on this car and pretty much every car I've owned since then. But yeah, it was what a 16-year-old kid would do to a 2006 Chevy Cobalt. Like it's it added up. Where'd it go? Sell it a record. I sold it. I can't remember who I sold it to, but I know that. every like small tiny paycheck that I got throughout the years that went into that car was not recuperated when I sold it it was pretty bad you were you were trying to knock the the reflectors off the road it sounded like instead of yeah instead of yeah I mean low riders are cool right like when I was a kid I wanted an S 10 that would scrape the ground throw sparks and rip all the reflectors off the line so yeah for I'm with you on that one so yeah thanks for taking the time

today yeah for letting us yeah right in your car yeah thanks for hanging out great experience yeah cool