Alex Bowman met with the media Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. Among the topics discusses was his reaction to the contract extension announced Friday.
RICK (HENDRICK) HAD SAID THIS WAS GOING TO BE A FORMALITY, BUT WAS THERE ANY EMOTION IN ACTUALLY SIGNING THE DEAL? WERE YOU HOPEFUL FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS, BUT AS A DRIVER RIGHT NOW, IS TWO YEARS ABOUT THE MAX YOU CAN GET?
“It‘s still twice the length of anything else I‘ve ever had, so I can‘t complain too much (laughs). It‘s really cool to know that Ally has faith in me and Mr. H has faith in me. I think matching the length of my contract up to Ally‘s was kind of the goal all around, and what was kind of expected and normal.”
“The way the industry is today, there aren‘t five-year contracts out there like there used to be. I‘m not going to complain too much. I‘m driving the 48 for Hendrick Motorsports — it‘s not so bad.”
FOLLOWING UP ON THE LENGTH OF THE CONTRACT — LAST YEAR, YOU SIGNED AN ONE-YEAR EXTENSION AND NOW THIS YEAR, IT‘S TWO. WHY WAS IT ONE LAST YEAR AND WHY WAS IT TWO THIS YEAR? IS IT A VALIDATION OF YOUR PERFORMANCE TO GIVE YOU THE EXTRA YEAR?
“Yeah, I don‘t know. I feel like somebody way smarter than me has the answer to that. Yeah, I think definitely a validation of how we‘ve run this year. I feel like as a team owner with Mr. Hendrick — if I got into the car, things weren‘t going well and Ally didn‘t like me and all that, they would have needed a change. So, that‘s probably why it was one year, if I had to put my team owner hat on.”
“It‘s just an honor to get to keep driving for Hendrick Motorsports. It‘s a dream come true for me everyday that I walk into that place, especially from where I started. It‘s just really cool to get to keep doing it.”
HAVING THE SECURITY OF A MULTI-YEAR DEAL IN CUP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A CHAMPIONSHIP-CALIBER RIDE LIKE THIS ONE, HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL ABOUT NEXT YEAR WITH THE NEXT GEN CAR AND ALL THE CHANGES THAT YOU HAVE THAT SECURITY THROUGH 2023?
“I think you‘re still going to have to do all you can to figure that Next Gen car out. It‘s nice to know that I do have that security, but still doing all I can to be as ready as I can be when that car comes along. I‘ve driven it once and its vastly different than what we have now. It‘s going to be really interesting to see how everybody adapts; but I love new challenges, new things and new race tracks like this weekend. It‘s going to be a lot of fun.”
— Team Chevy —
