Just sitting in a regular padded folding chair Sunday proved as difficult.Yet, here he was about to run 100 laps around the 15-turn, 2.42-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez course from the 29th starting spot.

Alex Bowman wasn’t sure he was going to make the trip to Mexico City because of lower back pain suffered in the hardest hit of his career at Michigan last week.

Alex Bowman went through a head-on crash he said registered over 50G. He was evaluated for back pain during the week and Hendrick Motorsports put Anthony Alfredo on standby in Mexico City if Bowman was unable to compete in the inaugural Cup Series race.