Alex Bowman reveals the easter eggs hidden in his Dale Earnhardt Jr.-designed Nashville paint scheme

06/13/2022 01:45 PM

Alex Bowman’s car usually stands out during NASCAR Cup Series races, regardless of what position he’s running in on the track. His typical paint scheme for his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is white with sponsor Ally’s vibrant colors flowing around it. It’s really hard to miss. That will still be true for Bowman’s Nashville Superspeedway paint scheme. But this time, his car has a totally different look, thanks to a collaboration with Dale Earnhardt Jr. “It’s always cool working with Dale,” Bowman told For The Win last week. “I feel like he is really creative, and his designer at is really, really good. So just a really cool looking race car. I think last year’s was great as well, but this year’s is really neat. … “I’m not the most creative person in the world, and he’s super creative and really particular with the race cars that he drove — and then also with this deal.” Last year for the Ally 400 — the Cup Series’ first-ever Nashville race — Earnhardt and fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon each designed dueling paint schemes, and fans, in a blind vote, picked Earnhardt’s design for the race. There’s no contest this time, so the scheme is mostly Dale Jr. and designer Ryan Williams’ vision, Bowman said. The No. 48 driver is a big fan of the look of his standard car with striking colors, like Ally’s grapefruit pink. And he’s had some cool paint schemes, including his Sonoma Raceway look, which featured LGBTQ+ pride colors inside icons of Ally’s logo. But his Nashville car is definitely different from the others. “All the Nashville elements that they included are really, really cool, and all the little easter eggs throughout the car are cool,” Bowman said. “I think the car came out great. Probably better than if I would have had much to deal with it.” The first egg is fairly obvious if you get a glimpse of the car when it’s not speeding around Nashville’s 1.333-mile track. On the hood of the car as the shadow of Ally’s logo is a guitar. Well, the head, tuning pegs and a glimpse of the neck of a guitar. But more hidden, as Bowman noted, are a few guitar picks in the scheme. Two of them are in the O of Bowman’s name printed above both the car’s side windows. The other two are neon yellow and can be found toward the bottom of the car on the side skirt with Ally’s A inside them. And speaking of, that’s the highlight of the paint scheme for its driver. “My favorite part of it is the fact that, somehow, we forced our way into getting the design to carry onto the side skirt, or rocker panel, of the car. Typically, you see that black this year. With the manufacturer cars, that area has always been black, and I think it looks really, really cool with the design carrying that far down.” Although Bowman loves this royal purple and magenta paint scheme, he was almost duped into thinking he’d end up with a uniquely ugly car. Earnhardt and Williams attempted to trick Bowman and presented him with design options that he said were “pretty awful.” But they didn’t fool Bowman too much because when he walked into a room to talk about the schemes, there was a camera and a boom mic. Already suspicious, Bowman said he immediately knew they were messing with him when the first car he saw had No. 88 — Earnhardt’s old number (and, for a few seasons, Bowman’s) from when he raced for Hendrick — not No. 48 on it. “I thought they were going to show me the real thing at the end of it, and then the last one was the worst one yet,” Bowman explained. “So yeah, I’m glad it was none of those, but it was pretty funny.” Last season in the Cup Series’ first Nashville race, Bowman finished 14th, while his teammate, Kyle Larson, took the checkered flag. He’s hoping for a better finish in the June 26 race — he has one win so far in 2022 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — while also eager to see what his car looks like on the track versus the renderings. But he still loves his 2021 Earnhardt-designed look. “Last year’s is probably pretty tough to beat.” The 2022 Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway is Sunday, June 26 at 5 p.m. ET on NBC.