NASCAR: Alex Bowman partners with Best Friends at Phoenix

Alex Bowman will have Best Friends Animal Society as a partner at the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, the Instacart 500K, alongside regular sponsor Ally Financial.

The tail end of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro will be in Best Friends orange, pairing extremely well with the white numbers and Ally purple as a cool gradient effect runs down the sides.

This news was announced earlier last week on Bowman’s and the Best Friends social media channels, with the dogs FaceTiming a first look at the car.

Bowman is a pet lover with two mischief-loving dogs of his own in Finn the silver Labrador and Roscoe the Beagle mix, and Finn may have won an iRacing event last year as the pandemic began.

He has also previously had Nationwide pet insurance on his car for several races earlier in his career, and finished a career-high sixth in the 2020 standings.

Alex Bowman will be sponsored by Best Friends Animal Society this weekend.

Besides serving as a co-primary sponsor at Phoenix, Ally will also donate $1,000 to a Best Friends-affiliated shelter in each city the Cup Series visits, for a total of $33,000 in all. For each time the No. 48 finds Victory Lane in 2021, Ally will donate an additional $10,000 to that city’s participating shelter.

“Ally has taken a big interest in my passions and this relationship with Best Friends could not be a better fit,” Bowman said in a press release. “Knowing each week when we go into a new race market that we are helping a local shelter is going to be special. Having a rescue pup myself with Roscoe, I know firsthand how special it feels when you sign those adoption papers and you know you are going to give that pet a great life.”

Bowman’s helmet will also be a mix of Ally purple and Best Friends orange as well, with the addition of paw prints in pink and lavender (Ally secondary colors). This will be auctioned off later in the season for more fundraising.

Fox Sports reporter Jamie Little will also have a pre-race interview segment with Bowman and the dogs, as Little is herself a dog lover and a huge supporter of animal rescue.

“As we race toward the 2025 goal , we are so grateful to have allies like Ally and Alex Bowman supporting Best Friends Animal Society and our network partners,” Marc Peralta, Best Friends chief program officer, said in a press release. “These generous donations are going to make a big difference for homeless pets across the country and will also raise awareness of how people can help shelters in their own community. We welcome every pet lover to join our efforts.”

Phoenix is Bowman’s home track, as he is from Tucson, Arizona, and is also fairly nearby the Best Friends headquarters in Kanab, Utah, along the Arizona border. In Cup starts, he has only qualified outside the top 10 once while in Hendrick equipment, with a best finish of sixth in 2016, a substitute performance which likely solidified his standing as Dale Earnhardt Jr’s replacement.

Phoenix-area HALO Animal Rescue will be the first Best Friends-affiliated shelter receiving a donation from Ally, and given that Hendrick teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron have already locked themselves into the playoffs with wins this season, and Chase Elliott is the reigning series champ, HALO has a good chance to earn that Ally bonus.

Through four races in 2021, Alex Bowman has a pole and two top 10s with a best finish of ninth at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and in his Cup career as a whole he has two wins, 16 top fives, 43 top 10s, three poles and 915 laps led through six full-time and one part-time seasons.

The Instacart 500K will be on Fox on Sunday, March 14 at 3:30 p.m ET, and for more news, analysis and opinions on all forms of motorsports, see our FanSided Network sister site Beyond the Flag for more information.