NASCAR Takeaways: Alex Bowman Fourth Hendrick Driver in Playoffs With Chicago Win

CHICAGO — Alex Bowman suffered a concussion in a crash during a NASCAR Cup Series race in 2022 and broke his back in a sprint car crash in 2023.

He has been healthy in 2024, with the possible exception of a stomach ache from not winning.

Bowman ended an 80-race winless streak by winning a rain-shortened and dark Cup race on the streets of Chicago as he outlasted Tyler Reddick (who was on slick tires while Bowman was on slower wet tires) on the final circuits of the 2.2-mile course through the city streets around Grant Park.

“I broke my back, I had a brain injury, and since then we’ve been in a tough spot, and… you start to wonder if we’ll ever have a chance to win a race again,” Bowman said.

Bowman is the only Hendrick Motorsports driver without a win this year through Sunday. Bowman’s victory in the race — shortened from 75 laps to 58 laps as rain interrupted the event and then darkness descended — was a confidence boost for Bowman and may quell speculation he’s in the hot seat despite a contract that runs through 2026.

“It’s important that you feel good, that you have chemistry and that you put in the effort, but you have to win at some point,” said Jeff Gordon, Hendrick’s vice president. “You have to win not only because you’re part of Hendrick Motorsports, but because it’s very difficult to get the team to where it needs to be to compete at the highest level on a consistent basis … without winning.”

The fact is, Bowman hasn’t been a complete failure. His 11 top-10 finishes this season are tied for second in the series. But winning and making the playoffs are the team’s expectations (crew chief Blake Harris earned his first career Stanley Cup victory in that role) and Bowman has led six laps all season.

“I was just trying to take care of the tires and then I realized there were slicks coming and I rode pretty hard for the last couple of laps,” Bowman said. “There was only a short time left in the race and I knew with the gap I saw behind me we were in a really good position.”

Takeaways from another wet race in Chicago (the second year for the event) where Reddick finished second, followed by Ty Gibbs, Joey Hand and Michael McDowell.

Wallace criticizes Bowman

Bubba Wallace slammed Bowman’s door after the race, angry about the contact in the first stage. NASCAR will evaluate the contact after the race for possible penalties.

“He barely touched me, everything was fine,” Bowman said. “It was well deserved.”

Bowman argued for no penalty – he said it was his fault and Wallace had a right to be angry.

“The restart was chaotic, wasn’t it? I made every bad decision possible and I was fighting with my wiper switch to try to get it to work, but I couldn’t. And I was focused on that, I missed the corner and I took him out.

“I locked up all four tires and crashed into him. I ruined everything and completely ruined his day.”

The two drivers had an infamous moment in 2019 when Wallace threw water on Bowman as he sat exhausted by his car after a race. Bowman said that was in the past.

“We raced very fair and very clean,” Bowman said. “I ruined it and ruined his day and I hate that.”

Two favorites crash

Kyle Larson and defending winner Shane van Gisbergen were two of the favourites heading into the race and both saw their races end prematurely in wet conditions.

Chase Briscoe hit the rear of Van Gisbergen on Lap 25 while Larson locked his brakes shortly after the race resumed from a rain interruption and hit the Turn 6 wall hard on Lap 34.

“I’m disappointed,” Larson said. “It caught me off guard. You push the braking zones a little bit more each lap to get more comfortable, but it caught me off guard.”

While Larson could at least know that his own mistake had ended his day, van Gisbergen did not.

“We were leading for a good part of the race,” said van Gisbergen. “I felt good at the start in the rain, which is a shame. It was an unfortunate mistake on his part. I’m sure he didn’t mean it, but when he hit me there was nothing I could do.”

NASCAR’s New Darkness Procedures Tested

After last year, when NASCAR announced to teams after lap 50 that the race would be shortened to 75 laps (instead of the scheduled 100) and ruined strategy for some, NASCAR instituted a new darkness rule.

The rule went into effect Sunday, after NASCAR told teams the race would end at 8:20 p.m. Central Time after a rain delay that lasted 1 hour and 43 minutes. The new rule states that once that time has passed and the leader crosses the start-finish line, there are two laps remaining.

After the race, the drivers indicated that they agreed with the procedure.

“The good thing is at least we all knew what the process and procedure was this time, whereas last time that was what stopped us from winning the race because we pitted and then they shortened the race and all the guys who didn’t pit held their track position and made it to the end,” McDowell said.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @Bobpockrass.