A first lap incident sent RAB Racing’s No. 99 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/Toyota Care Camry piloted by Alex Bowman into survival mode for the rest of the Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway. In turns three and four on the first lap found Bowman and Brian Scott making contact, sending the No. 99 spinning, but with heavy right side damage. The RAB Racing crew pitted numerous times to repair the damage in the early stages, but it was extensive enough that it effected the cars handling the rest of the race. Bowman restarted the race in 35th position but at the end of the race fought his way back up to get a 14th place finish, the team’s seventh top 15 finish in 13 races. The No. 99 RAB Racing Toyota Camry showed some serious speed earlier in the day with a fifth place qualifying effort, the fastest rookie and the fastest Toyota in the field.
Alex Bowman: Definitely a disappointing race for us, we had a great car, and one that could have challenged for a win. Brian Scott and I were racing hard in the opening lap when he came down on me on the entry of turn 3, taking the air off my spoiler, and from there the car just pushed up into his and we made contact, something that could have been avoidable by the two of us. I’m very thankful to have a crew in RAB Racing, and a crew chief in Chris Rice, they never gave up on me all race long and we continuously fought hard for a good finish. Right side downforce is so important at a track like this, and with the contact it took the side skirt off, and pulled up the sheetmetal on the door, which meant we couldn’t seal the right side of the car to the race track. From there we were tight all race long because we didn’t have the downforce as all the other cars, so it definitely made the rest of the race extremely challenging but again, very thankful we got a top 15 out of a day like that.
Bowman held on to the 11th position in driver’s point standings and Robby Benton also maintained 15th place in the owner’s point standings. Next race on the NASCAR Nationwide schedule is Road America on Saturday, June 22nd.
