Bowman finds confidence behind wheel of the No. 88 – Nascar

RELATED: Bowman grateful for opportunity

LOUDON, N.H. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. summed it up best on Twitter following the New Hampshire 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Don’t be fooled by Alex Bowman ‘s 26th-place finish at the “Magic Mile” — the young driver made an impression on the race track while filling the seat of NASCAR’s most popular driver before a little bad luck hit.

The result will not show what a great job @AlexBRacing and the @nationwide88 gang did this weekend. Proud of them guys.

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 17, 2016

After qualifying 20th, Bowman — subbing for Earnhardt this weekend as the veteran battles concussion-like symptoms — sliced and diced his way through the field at a track notorious for difficult passing, settling as high as eighth with 30 to go before contact on pit road and more during a jumbled restart left the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a tire rub.

When the rubber finally gave way, Bowman’s entry made contact with the outside retaining wall in Turn 1, bringing out the race’s fifth caution period on the 272nd of 301 laps. Prior to that, the 23-year-old appeared poised for his first career top-10 finish in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition in his first start of the season. His previous best in two Sprint Cup seasons was a 13th-place result at Daytona in July 2014.

“I think the No. 19 (of Carl Edwards ) was backing up because he was blocked in as I was leaving the pit box,” Bowman said on pit road following the race. “My left-rear hit his right-rear as I was leaving. It caved it in enough, we thought we would be fine, but obviously, when I got into the No. 41 (of Kurt Busch) it was already going down. I got really loose, got up the race track and got into him. It is really unfortunate. I think the worst we would’ve finished would’ve been seventh or eighth.

“They knew we were here for sure, and I had a blast.”

Though he mentioned he “hate(s) the circumstances,” of how it came together, the opportunity to drive one of NASCAR’s premier cars came at a critical point in Bowman’s career.

Having lost his full-time Sprint Cup ride a month before the season started, Bowman has been grinding to make a name for himself in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports team on a part-time basis, itching to get another shot in the premier series. Sunday’s performance should go a long way toward continuing in that direction.

“I’ve raced with a lot of these guys for a long time; I raced around them but I’ve never got to actually race with guys like Jimmie Johnson , Tony Stewart , Kurt Busch, all those guys,” Bowman said. ” … I’ve never had a day where I could just race with them. And today I was finally able to do that.”

Not having Earnhardt in the car for the first time in second-year crew chief Greg Ives’ Sprint Cup career certainly offered a unique challenge for the No. 88 crew, but Bowman met the team’s expectations and before his tire went down was in position to pull out a top-10 finish — something the struggling squad hasn’t had since finishing runner-up at Pocono more than a month ago.

“I thought he did well,” Ives said of his interim driver. “I thought this weekend was a good learning weekend for the whole team. Obviously for him, but having a different driver makes you communicate differently and I think something that we can pick up and improve on for when Dale comes back for us to communicate better. Alex has run Cup cars before and around the competition but for him to … he felt to be able to run with those guys and learn from them really helped him out today.

“Definitely (we’d be comfortable with him in the car again), if needed. … Circumstances will play out how they play out. For sure, it’s definitely an option in the future.”

While Bowman won’t be back in Junior’s car next week at Indianapolis — that nod goes to recently-retired four-time champion Jeff Gordon , should Earnhardt need more time to recover — it was clear that Sunday marked a milestone for the up-and-comer, who won’t be forgetting his magical weekend at Loudon any time soon.

“I don’t think I’ve gotten out of a Cup car with a smile on my face in a while,” he said. “It’s just so much fun to be able to run up front like that. I’ve spent two years of my career wondering if I can really do this at the Cup level and today I answered that for myself.”