Alex Bowman surprised a lot of people running in the top-10 most of the back half of the Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire before a tire blowout in the closing laps relegated him to a back half finish in his substitute drive for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.
With 29 laps to go, Alex Bowman was running eighth, but contact on pit road with Carl Edwards and further contact with Kurt Busch caused a tire rub on his left-rear that resulted in a blowout and contacting the wall on the frontstretch going into Turn 1.
“I think the No. 19 was backing up because he was blocked in as I was leaving the pit box,” Bowman said of what he thought led to his tire going down. “My left-rear hit his right-rear as I was leaving. It caved it in enough, we thought we would be fine, but obviously, when I got into the No. 41 it was already going down. I got really loose, got up the race track and got into him. I hate that for Kurt. Obviously, just got loose had a tire going down and then it went down at about the start/finish line, I just tried to hang on to it. It is really unfortunate. They knew we were here for sure and I had a blast.”
Bowman was chosen to drive the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on Thursday after Earnhardt was declared medically unclear to race this weekend with symptoms of a concussion.
“When I got the call I’m like, ‘Oh, Loudon? Really? Okay, well, I’ll try,’” he said. “And they were so welcoming. Such great people to get to work with. Greg (Ives) and all the guys. I had so much fun working with everybody. And I’ve got to thank Mr. ‘H’, too; it was just an absolute blast. I was off a little bit in practice and qualifying, so I feel like I got my act together for the race and it definitely showed.”
The lackluster finish didn’t stop him from saying the experience “was amazing. I can’t thank Hendrick Motorsports and all these guys enough. They took me to my worst race track by far and made me look good. I just have to thank Mr. H. I had such an amazing time. Everybody, Greg (Ives, crew chief) and all the guys were so welcoming.”
“I hate the circumstances and really hope Dale is feeling well, but I had so much fun today. Obviously, I hate that we didn’t get the finish we deserve, but I’ve raced with a lot of these guys for a long time, I raced around them (but) I’ve never got to actually race with guys like Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, all those guys. I had a lot of fun passing really good cars. Just really thankful for Nationwide and all of Hendrick Motorsports for letting me be here.”
Because Earnhardt didn’t start the race, he didn’t collect points for Bowman’s 26th-place finish. His absence dropped him to 15th in points at the Chase cutoff heading to Indianapolis.
