Tonight was not the night that Alex Bowman needed to star the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs. He finished P31 in the Southern 500. Already in a fragile place entering the postseason, Bowman is now tied for fewest points in the 16-driver field.
Alex Bowman got involved in Josh Berry’s Lap 1 accident. At least partially. Still, that wasn’t the only reason why this team couldn’t put together a strong outing tonight.
Ultimately, Bowman finished P31 and two laps down. For a Hendrick driver that’s unacceptable. The only problem is, his teammates finished P17, P19, and P21. So, it isn’t like he was that much worse.
After the finish, Bowman spoke to the media. He was not happy with the result, obviously.
“Yeah I mean, it certainly wasn’t a lack of effort,” Bowman explained, via Kelly Crandall of RACER. “But, just a sh***y, unacceptable day on all fronts, you know. We weren’t great when we unloaded, didn’t qualify well. Got caught up in that first deal a little bit, lost a little bit of track position that we had, and then just kind of fell apart from there.
“Honestly, without all that, we’re just really, really slow. Yeah, not for a lack of effort from any of these guys, they all work super hard back at the shop, and you know, everybody’s putting in a lot of work. But unfortunately, we just missed it this week. Obviously, I’ll have to look at it, but I can see my teammates. So, I assume we all missed it a little bit, and yeah, just a s**t day, but could have been a lot worse, I’m sure.”
Chase Briscoe dominated the race and won after leading 309 laps. A massive win for the 19 team.
Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports miss at Darlington
The 48 team has not won a race this season. They are one bad race at Gateway from being in a must-win situation. So, will this team respond the next two weeks to fight their way back into the Round of 12 picture?
If you are Alex Bowman, at least the rest of Hendrick was off tonight. Had he been the lone driver at HMS struggling, that would be one thing. But he wasn’t. Then there was the pit road mistake where the air hoses became detached from the compressors for the air impact wrench.
It was a terrible mistake. The 48 team couldn’t get out of its own way, and even when Bowman got back on the lead lap, his speed kept him from doing anything with the track position. It wasn’t much track position to speak of, either.
Alex Bowman will have to be on the top of his game in the next two weeks. Can he make it to the Round of 12?
