MARTINSVILLE, Va. – For a driver who’s with a team that expects to contend for victories each week, a seventh-place finish was not at all what Alex Bowman hoped to leave Martinsville Speedway with.

But after a rough start to the season for the entire Hendrick Motorsports organization, the result was something that Bowman felt comfortable calling a sign of progress.

The Arizona native started highest amongst his teammates in Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500, advancing from 16th to seventh but having to fight hard all day to get there, spending most of the race mired outside the top 10.

Bowman never even cracked the top 10 until 75 to go, when his car finally came to life and he began to move forward around strong runners, including former Martinsville winners Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch.

That late speed propelled Bowman all the way to his eventual finishing position in seventh, eventually overhauling even A.J. Allmendinger – who was the highest-running Chevrolet driver for most of the day.

Afterwards, Bowman admitted he wasn’t sure exactly what his team hit on to make them stronger down the stretch run of the race, but that crew chief Greg Ives kept working to make his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet better all afternoon.

“I don’t know if it was one thing. I felt like I had some good observations after second practice on some things I wanted to change, and they seemed to pay off big during the race … or at least be the right direction during the race,” said Bowman. “Greg (Ives, crew chief) just made really good adjustments. Every stop we got better. We had solid pit stops all day, the pit crew worked really hard, and we just made good decisions from on top of the box and had a good race car.”

However, even his best result so far this season did little to truly put Bowman in high spirits.

“It’s frustrating to say we’re looking for a seventh, but this was much better for us today than where we have been the last couple of weeks. I’m just happy for all my guys. They have worked really hard all off season and all year. We haven’t had the results we wanted, so to come here and finish stronger is definitely a step in the right direction.”

“We’ve got a long way to go, but we are headed the right way.”

In a Martinsville race that had only four cautions, the race might have seemed low-key from the outside, but Bowman’s run was anything but calm.

“I had my hands full (with the car),” admitted Bowman. “It wasn’t mellow for me. I’m a little worn out. That was a physical one for me at least. I changed some stuff inside the racecar that made me able to go faster, but probably wore me out a little quicker. I’m glad that I didn’t fall out of the seat there because it was pretty physical, but it was fun.”

Despite the organization’s slow start to the year, Bowman said no one is panicking inside the Hendrick Motorsports shop.

“Nobody has really made a big deal of anything. Obviously, you read the media stuff and everybody is all fired up, but we know we are off. Everybody is just real motivated and working harder. It’s a lot of guys that have won a lot of races and they want to get back to that winning feeling. So, they are all working really hard. We’ve got the best in the business back at the shop working to get better.”

Still, Bowman was surprised it took until race six of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season to grab his first top 10 finish of the year, and even more so that it came at Martinsville.

“This isn’t where we expected to get our first top-10 of the year at all,” he admitted. “I mean, I’d have thought Daytona, and then if not Daytona then Atlanta, and then if not Atlanta, Phoenix.”

“We’re here to win races every week. To take this long to get a top 10 … it’s not what we wanted at all, but I’m glad we are going the right way.”