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.

MEXICO CITY — Alex Bowman winced as he lowered his body into a seat in the drivers meeting Sunday, the pain in his right lower back and leg a result of his high-speed head-on crash the previous week in Michigan. He said on Saturday that it was painful sitting in his car. Just sitting in a regular padded folding chair Sunday proved as difficult.