Thanks to COVID-19 forcing NASCAR to move last year’s scheduled Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway to another track, it’s been two long years since NASCAR’s premier division competed at the two-mile oval. Much has changed since then, of course, as the series has switched from the old Gen-6 model car to this year’s new Next Generation car, and several drivers are with different teams now than the one they competed with the last time the Cup Series contested a points race in Southern California. Because of all this, it’s impossible to anoint any driver or team as a clear-cut favorite to go to Victory Lane this weekend.
However, as the most recent winner at ACS, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman has to at least be one of the drivers with a decent chance to make some noise. Since his victory at ACS in March 2020, Bowman has triumphed four more times (all in 2021) while solidifying himself as one of the sport’s top drivers. Following his lone victory of 2020 at ACS, Bowman went on to finish a career-best sixth in the standings. Last year, he ranked 14th in points but earned a career-high four wins in a single season.
“I’m definitely proud of those four wins,” Bowman said. “I think the way we ended ’20 was probably a little bit stronger than how we ended ’21 — we had a much better playoff run and ended up way better in the points — but being able to win four races in one year was pretty awesome, so I’m definitely confident coming into ’22. I’m still trying to find that consistency, but we know how to win races and we know how to finish well at the end, and if we can put the consistency factor in there as well, I think we can contend for a championship.”