In the high-octane circuit conditions of NASCAR, where the split seconds are the decision makers for the trajectory to triumph or disaster, Alex Bowman shared some glimpses into the wisdom he gained from racing legend Jeff Gordon. During a candid conversation, Bowman addressed the deteriorating state of the driver etiquette on superspeedways. 

“It’s just superspeedway racing,” this is the answer you will often get from the drivers after being involved in a crash at tracks like Daytona and Talladega. Look at Joey Logano for example. The Penske star certainly was involved in sparking a “Big One” with 15 to go in the race, but he wasn’t taking any accountability for it, “I was trying to back out but I was getting shoved into it as the check-up had already happened and racing there in the end.”

Even Jeff Gordon couldn’t help but throw shades at the reigning Cup Series champ. When Bob Pockrass after the race asked if there was anyone who made stupid moves to win the race, Gordon highlighted, “Joey did.” Interestingly in an era where wrecking race cars for the sake of it has become a thing on drafting tracks, Hendrick Motorsports still believes in racing etiquette. And that has rewarded them with back-to-back Daytona 500 wins. And this wisdom by Gordon has been passed on to new generations of drivers at HMS.

Alex Bowman comes clean on the current state of superspeedway racing

The conversation emerged after a reporter pointed out comments about how “driver etiquette is dead” and the curio-questioned about the personal pieces of advice Alex Bowman received from the veterans of the track. He acknowledged, “Yeah, I’ve been really fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of experience and by a lot of really good race car drivers, whether it’s JG or Jimmy or Dale. So I certainly have gotten a ton of advice from them over the course of my career. As a whole, we’re all guilty of causing a crash at the speedway at one point or another.” The direct confession by Bowman reveals the group accountability which the Hendrick Motorsports veteran has learned from his mentors.

A year ago at the Daytona 500, the 30-year-old Bowman recounted his responsibility for causing an accident while attempting to push another competitor. Bowman expressed “I caused a one at the end of the 500 last year just trying to push William. So, yeah, I know when I realized that I crashed the field, I was really hard on myself,” compared to others who accept superspeedway racing incidents as inevitable. During a 2021 podcast appearance, Bowman revealed Jeff Gordon’s direction to him about accepting responsibility for mistakes during bad races which many believe strongly influenced his current thinking.

Hendrick Motorsports preserves a tradition in racing ethics because of mentoring practices headed by Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. However both believe drivers need to face consequences for on-track behavior. But with many observers noting the decline in driver etiquette, the question remains: Can Bowman and drivers with his mindset maintain the respectful racing methods Gordon and distinguished veterans upheld?

But, is there a bigger concern that looms over the current state of superspeedway racing? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen door-to-door action on the high banks of Daytona. Now the drivers will only play to the tunes of the current style of racing, and thanks to the Next Gen car and parity racing, drivers have to resort to aggressive beating and banging tactics on the track. Denny Hamlin certainly didn’t shy away from highlighting the major issues that have been crippling superspeedway racing in the Gen 7 era.

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Hamlin demands changes to the superspeedway package

Three wide, side by side close packing racing might be visually appealing, but for drivers, it’s no fun. The first two-thirds of superspeedway racing is running slow laps on half throttle. This is where the infamous fuel-saving tactics come into play. With the entire field bunched up in a draft, the best time to make any notable gains is on the pit road, and less time on the pit road equals a better track position.

Next thing you know they are all primed and ready to make that final push, which more times than not leads to crashes and wrecks. It’s almost become a norm to see the whole field crashing at the end of superspeedway races. But, is there a fix to this issue? Not the shark-fin gimmick, but a real solution. Well, Denny Hamlin seems to have cracked the code and it’s nothing groundbreaking.

“If I’m going to fix Next Gen superspeedway racing, I’m going down 150 horsepower or whatever it might be with the Cup cars and taking a ton of drag out of the car. You cannot pull out of line on superspeedways right now because of the detriment of how much drag your cars have. We used to run 300s horsepower range and now we’re running like 600. To keep us from going 220 mph, they added spoiler and dug the car down with speed using the outer body so get that out of there.” Hamlin said this on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

It’s fair to say that the current style of superspeedway racing is evolving. And NASCAR still has a long way to go to build a product fit for iconic drafting tracks.