Alex Bowman got here shut, however did not win at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday night time (June 28). Nevertheless, his transfer on the ultimate lap of the Quaker State 400 could have been essentially the most influential of all in deciding the winner at Echo Park Speedway.
When Chase Elliott dove beneath Brad Keselowski for the win in a crash-heavy thriller in Atlanta, it was Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet that gave the No. 9 the push it wanted to seal the deal. He crossed the road in third, however the Hendrick Motorsports driver had no regrets about his position in a decisive second for the staff.
“I did not actually have a selection there on the final lap of what I used to be going to do. There wasn’t a chance for me to win the race, sadly. However, I believe simply the way in which the race would shuffle the chief out each handful of laps… It is a staff of us out right here. So having a Hendrick (Motorsports) automotive in Victory Lane is at all times factor,” Bowman advised Bob Pockrass post-race.
Alex Bowman could have completed third, however his Atlanta weekend was certainly one of his strongest performances of the 2025 season. After staying out throughout the last warning, when many of the subject behind the highest eight pitted for tires, he held his personal.
Bowman even led twice within the last 16 laps, exhibiting command earlier than Elliott surged from behind to capitalize. Crucially, he averted the night time’s worst wrecks, together with the race-defining 23-car pileup on Lap 70 and remained among the many contenders because the entrance of the sphere thinned out.
Operating behind race leaders Elliott and Keselowski on the penultimate lap, Bowman determined to push his Hendrick Motorsports teammate into the lead on the ultimate nook. Elliott had the observe place and Bowman had momentum, and Keselowski, outnumbered and outmaneuvered, could not maintain off the Hendrick cost.
Whereas Keselowski dove in entrance of Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet on the ultimate lap to get an similar push, he steered left and took the low line, ending beside the RFK Racing No. 6. Talking after the race, a gutted Keselowski advised NASCAR:
“He (Elliott) simply had the 48 behind him giving him an enormous push and nothing I may do to cowl that. Once we had our vehicles linked up at RFK, we may do the identical factor and we misplaced that. Then it was simply form of a two-on-one, and fought as onerous as I may.”
Alex Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (retired early in P37) and Kyle Larson (P17) bought caught within the melee. However, Bowman represented Hendrick’s finest shot, and finally, their key to unlocking Elliott’s first win of the season.
Alex Bowman performs a key position in Atlanta however nonetheless chases postseason readability
P3 in Atlanta’s Quaker State 400 marked Alex Bowman’s second-best end of the yr (after his P2 at Homestead), and he has proven renewed tempo over the previous few weeks. Nonetheless, the job is not achieved for the Tucson native. With eight races remaining within the common season, Bowman finds himself simply 39 factors above the cutline.
It’s a slim cushion in a yr with 11 completely different winners already, and the NASCAR playoff image is shifting quick. The largest concern? All three of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates (Larson, Byron, Elliott) are actually playoff-locked, whereas Bowman stays winless.
His current kind has helped, but when two extra new winners emerge, Bowman’s spot may very well be in jeopardy. He’ll now head to Chicago for the Grant Park 165 avenue race with momentum, however not certainty.
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Edited by Luke Koshi
