In fact, despite not having a win so far in 2023, Bowman has been the series’ most consistent performer in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a 7.1 average finish.
But since March 15, Bowman has gone from leading the series standings to 27th back to leading and this now in seventh – and all due to NASCAR penalties.
On March 15, all four Hendrick Cup teams were hit with big penalties, including the loss of 100 owner/driver points and 10 playoff points, for the unapproved modification of a single-sourced part (hood louvers).
However, last week, an appeals panel rescinded the points penalties, putting Bowman back in the series lead.
On Thursday, Bowman and William Byron’s teams were penalized again, this time for unapproved modifications to their cars’ greenhouses, and both drivers were docked 60 owner/driver points and five playoff points.
Hendrick has not yet decided whether to appeal this penalty, so here Bowman sits entering Sunday night’s dirt race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway once again finding himself battling for points he didn’t lose on the track.
“I just drive the thing. We have the best average finish of the year. Obviously, I’m not the points leader anymore,” Bowman said Saturday. “All I can do is keep performing how I’ve done and try to do better each and every week.
“Obviously, we want to be leading the points but at the same time, we’re still seventh or eighth in points. We just got to keep plugging along. We’ve had a good start to the year. We’ve just got to keep performing.”
While his teammates Byron and Kyle Larson have earned wins already this season, Bowman has been the model of consistency.
He has no finish worse than 14th this season and has finished in the top-10 in six of the seven races. He has run well on short tracks, intermediates, a road course and a superspeedway.
Asked about his mindset having to deal with two serious penalties assessed to he and his team over the last month, Bowman said, “It’s sub-optimal, right? It really doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s my job to drive the race car and perform at the highest level that I am capable of behind the wheel of the race car.
“Just running as well as we have makes me feel pretty good about things. It’s the best start to a season that I’ve had in my career. I’ve been enjoying that. I’m not frustrated. I feel like my team, we did a really good job overcoming the first (penalty) and staying plugged in and not letting it get to us.
“Hopefully, we can do that throughout this second one as well.”
Positives outweigh the negatives
Bowman, 29, said so far, he hasn’t gotten too concerned with effects of the NASCAR penalties but that could change.
While Hendrick has until Tuesday to decide whether to appeal its most recent penalty, Bowman talked Saturday like someone who felt he would have to make up 60 points.
“If it comes down to like we would have won the regular season championship if it wasn’t for that penalty, that will be pretty frustrating,” he said.
“Currently, all the positives (this season) outweigh the negatives. If we were struggling on top of all this happening, it would probably be a different story, for me at least.”