Jake Swanson felt like he had won the Wednesday night Chili Bowl preliminary, but it wasn’t for himself, and it wasn’t really a victory.
Team owner Alex Bowman had a miserable experience in Tulsa last year, crashing all three of his cars between himself, Swanson and CJ Leary. It was a complete waste bin of a week and it was the start of a pretty miserable year overall for Bowman.
The NASCAR Cup Series veteran suffered a fractured vertebra during a High Limit Sprint Car Series race in April and missed four races while recovering. But it took even longer for him to feel closer to 100 percent so he failed to win a race and missed the playoffs as a result.
That’s effectively why Bowman isn’t racing this week, placing his open wheel dirt ambitions on hiatus, choosing instead to place Kevin Thomas Jr. in what was typically his entry.
So when Swanson finished second to Corey Day on Wednesday, giving Alex Bowman Racing its first automatic berth into the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals feature, he was more thrilled for his friend and car owner than anything else.
It’s been a year.
“I’m super happy for Alex,” Swanson said. “He’s had a rough couple of years, especially last year where we tore up everything we had. It feels good to lock in for him. We did exactly what we needed to for him to make that happen and I’m pumped more for him than anything.”
Bowman, for his part, was happy for Jake.
That’s his dude.
“I grew up racing with Jake and that means a lot to win here with him,” Bowman said. “We have made so many fun racing memories as kids so to have him drive one of my cars with Ally support, it means a lot.”
You could forgive Bowman too if he felt a little bit of déjà vu the way their week started as Thomas ran into an accident that happened in front of him. There wasn’t any significant damage, and Thomas ultimately rallied to an eighth-place prelim feature finish but there had to have been a here we go again moment.
“Yeah, but we got lucky in a sense,” Bowman said. “Kevin hit the car wide open but hit him with only the frame. It bent the frame pretty bad but everything else was okay and we were able to move on and salvage the night with that race car.
“Kevin was a lot better than eighth but this is way better than flying two different cars into the air on the same night.”
No kidding.
Swanson has a legit shot at this thing.
“It comes down to balance for me,” he said. “We’re really close on the car and got it a lot better today. We need to go a little further in that direction to ensure that I can use more throttle and recover quickly. There are some little things that I feel pretty confident will get us to the 100 percent I feel like I need.”
Bowman has another shot with Leary tomorrow too — his longest tenured driver and also one of his best friends.
“We got one more night to get through tomorrow with CJ,” Bowman said. “We’re really close and put a lot of pressure on each other and it’s a stressful situation for me but I’m excited for it.”
With the departure of long-time crew Joe Gaerte, Bowman has taken the full car preparation and crew chief role upon himself, which is actually a lot of fun to him. Bowman has said for years, that as much as he has enjoyed racing open-wheel dirt cars, he loves tinkering with them more.
So he has three programs he is overseeing and that’s actually been a blast for him so far.
“I’m the captain now,” Bowman said. “It’s stressful and that stress takes all the FOMO (of driving) away. It’s been fun. It’s hard to get right when one is a little person, and Jake is 180 pounds, so the size difference.
“Kevin is so small so you can do a lot of things to the car. Jake is so big that you can’t do a lot or you make him really tight. It’s tough but it’s fun.”
And so far, the captain is calling all the right shots and looks like a legit threat for a Golden Driller.
“It would mean a lot,” Bowman said. “I’m not sure we’re quite at that level but we’re gaining on it. But just to be in the conversation for it is a big deal.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.