Alfredo In Unique Position To Succeed Filling In For Bowman

As Anthony Alfredo prepares to slide behind the wheel of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway, in place of Alex Bowman, who was ruled out following a vertigo diagnosis after he exited the race at Circuit of the Americas early, he has plenty of reason to feel confident.

For the last few seasons, Alfredo has served as the simulator driver for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, which means he has spent a lot of time in the Chevrolet sim rig preparing the HMS and Chevrolet teams for Phoenix, the former site of NASCAR's championship weekend. Alfredo says he has turned more virtual laps at Phoenix than at any other track in the Chevrolet sim.

"I have a lot of laps here, I have a tremendous amount of laps at every track, but with this being a championship race, I have more here than anyone else," Alfredo said in a Friday media availability at Phoenix Raceway. "And we haven't really left any stone unturned as far as correlating from sim to reality and tuning the cars. I'm looking forward to seeing what that really looks like now, but also applying the things I've learned in the sim to this opportunity on the track."

Another intangible that shouldn't be an issue is Alfredo acclimating himself to working with crew chief Blake Harris and the rest of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team, as he has spent a lot of time with all four of the Hendrick teams in his time as the simulator driver for the team.

"I already have an established relationship with all four teams, the crew chiefs, and the engineers, working with Blake Harris [crew chief of the No. 48] and that whole team, they already know how I communicate," Alfredo explained. "We have existing chemistry, and this is my fourth year as a full-time sim driver for them.

"So, I drive the simulator every day during the week and run through every possible setup imaginable and every adjustment you can make to those for them all to be successful, and for Hendrick Motorsports to remain the dominant organization they are in the NASCAR Cup Series. So, that makes the transition a lot easier."

While Hendrick Motorsports being without Bowman, it's full-time driver, this weekend is far from an ideal situation, it truly feels like the team is in the best possible spot from a fill-in driver standpoint as Alfredo is so ingrained in the way they handle business. Add in the fact that Alfredo has logged in thousands of virtual laps in Hendrick prepared cars at Phoenix Raceway, and Sunday's race has all of the hallmarks of the potential for success.

But nothing is given in racing, it's all earned. Alfredo and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team will focus on the little details this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. If they handle all of that, the big picture should come together.

"I think for us, it's about nailing the fundamentals," Alfredo stated.

Alfredo says that many have lent him advice about his spot-start with Hendrick Motorsports this weekend, and the consensus has been to limit mistakes.

"A lot of people have been in this position, and I've gotten some really great advice of things they would do differently, and all of those people around me, who have put me in this position, have given me a lot of information and tools to go out there and be successful," Alfredo said. "So, the biggest thing is running a clean race, run all the laps, put yourself in position, and executing the fundamentals. If you do that, you'd be surprised where you end up a lot of times."

And who knows, if Alfredo is able to impress on Sunday, it could amount to a springboard for his NASCAR National Series career, which has seen him running part-time for Beard Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series the last few years, and has seen him become something of a journeyman driver for mid-tier teams in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series ranks.

However, Alfredo isn't coming into Sunday's race with any expectation of what it could mean to his future if he is able to bring home a solid finish, and he's certainly not expecting to parlay Sunday's race into a larger role with Hendrick Motorsports.

“I have no expectation of anything like that," Alfredo explained. "As I said, this is a one-race opportunity for me. We're here in Phoenix, and I'm focused on this one race. We'll see where it leads, but I've got a full-time opportunity in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series now that I'm going to be focused on this afternoon and tomorrow once I get out of the Cup car. We'll just have to go one race at a time.”

While Alfredo doesn't have any expectations, it's worth noting that Bowman's ride with Hendrick Motorsports was essentially secured in a very similar fashion, as he impressed mightily filling in for a concussed Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Phoenix Raceway in 2016.

Bowman started from the pole at Phoenix in the next-to-last race of the season in 2016, and would go on to lead 194 laps on his way to a sixth-place finish behind the wheel of Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet.

After Earnhardt retired at the conclusion of the 2017 season, Bowman was hand-picked to take over for Earnhardt. While there is no expectation that Bowman's career or tenure at Hendrick Motorsports is over, the team could find a way to add a place for Alfredo to get more of a foothold in the sport if Sunday's race goes well.

But in order for any of that to come to fruition, Alfredo has to go take care of business. And on Friday, Alfredo sounds like a driver who is fully prepared to do just that.