CONCORD, N.C. — Alex Bowman was once more having an outstanding run in his role as a relief driver for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports entry when he hit the wall at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The crash ended a strong start in Sunday’s rain-delayed Bank of America 500. Bowman would not return because his car could not be repaired, his team announced.
Bowman’s left front tire was smoking before his car slammed into the wall, also making contact with Casey Mears. Bowman was running third at the time. It appeared Bowman ran over something on the track, he said.
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Bowman, 23, is filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who continues his recovery from concussion-like symptoms.
He pulled to pit road and tried to turn into the garage, but could not make it because of the car's heavily damaged front end.
Bowman's car sat at the entrance as the laps continued to run under caution. A wrecker was summoned to move the car while Bowman went to the infield care center for a post-crash evaluation. Bowman was cleared to return, but there was no way his car was.
That's a wrap for Alex Bowman & the #88. Dale Earnhardt Jr. helps push his car back in the hauler #NASCAR #BOA500 pic.twitter.com/93eYnGru4g
— Kelsey Riggs (@KelseyRiggsWCNC) October 9, 2016
Alex Bowman is fine. Says it's not anyone's fault, but he's disappointed #NASCAR #BOA500 pic.twitter.com/64KESHgLzg
— Kelsey Riggs (@KelseyRiggsWCNC) October 9, 2016
Meanwhile, Mears' team was hard at work.
In the spot where an @GoodyearRacing tire should be @Koondog13 is hammering away to rebuild the wheel well. pic.twitter.com/3DWwu0w5cP
— Germain Racing (@GermainRacing) October 9, 2016
Bowman had been running among the leaders for the entire race.
“Blew a tire I guess," he said of the incident. "It’s really unfortunate. ... Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports worked so hard. They brought a great race car here, brand new and destroyed it. Really unfortunate, but it’s not anybody’s fault. We didn’t hit nothing we just must have run over something.”
Bowman said he had no idea how his tire failure could have happened.
“Yeah, we didn’t hit anything and it’s nobody’s fault," he said. "We just must have run something over. It’s unfortunate and I hate it for all the guys. Everyone at Hendrick Motorsports brought a great car to the race track. Again, it’s unfortunate and we are going to try and get back out there and salvage some spots.”
Mears, meanwhile, had no chance to avoid Bowman.
“I just was going into the corner and I saw him come up all of a sudden," Mears said. "I don’t know. It’s too bad he didn’t put us out of our misery there. We were having a rough start of it. We were just kind of hanging on and actually those guys were going by us. They either blew a right-front (tire) or had something come loose or something and came up into us.”
It was familiar ground for the driver, who crashed while running eighth late at New Hampshire in his debut with the team.