Alex Bowman was having a stellar race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before he slammed the wall to bring out a late caution period.
Bowman, filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, had a flat tire and hit the wall in Turn 1 on Lap 272. He was running eighth before the incident. He pitted and immediately returned to the track, but was 25th with 24 laps remaining. He went on to finish 26th.
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Earnhardt missed the race because of concussion-like symptoms. His status for next weekend’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be determined by the middle of this week, team owner Rick Hendrick said before the race.
The result will not show what a great job @AlexBRacing and the @nationwide88 gang did this weekend. Proud of them guys.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 17, 2016
Bowman, meanwhile, had showcased his skills in driving the elite entry. He’s driven two seasons in the Sprint Cup Series, one with BK Racing and one with Tommy Baldwin Racing, with a previous best finish of 13th. He appeared on track for his first career top 10 in the Cup series.
After the race, Bowman had nothing but praise for team owner Rick Hendrick and crew chief Greg Ives.
“It was amazing," he told NBCSN after the race. "I can’t thank Hendrick Motorsports and all these guys enough. They took me to my worse racetrack by far, and made me look good. I’ve just got to thank Mr. H. I had such an amazing time. Everybody, Greg 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 that we deserved, but I’ve raced with a lot of these guys for a long time. I’ve raced around them, I’ve never gotten to actually race with guys like Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, all those guys and had a lot of fun passing really good cars."
Bowman was ninth coming out of the pits following the competition caution on Lap 35 of the scheduled 301, but fell back to 21st by the 76th lap. As the race wore on, though, he worked his way back toward the front and the top 10.
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He moved into the top 10 just after 130 laps into the race and began picking his way toward the front. By Lap 226, he moved into the top 10 and stayed among the frontrunners throughout the next segment of the race.
He was 11th coming out of the pits for the restart after the caution period on Lap 264 and had moved up to eighth before the crash.
Sounds like a flat left-rear tire for @AlexBRacing caused him to get into the wall on lap 272.
— Hendrick 88 Team (@Hendrick88Team) July 17, 2016
After the race, he detailed what he thought happened.
"I think the [Carl Edwards] was backing up because he was blocked in as I was leaving the pit box and my left rear hit his right rear as I was leaving and then caved it in enough, we thought it would be fine, but obviously when I got into the 41 [of Kurt Busch] it was already going down and got really loose, got up the racetrack, got into him. I hate that for Kurt … Just tried to hang onto it."
The 88 goes into the wall. #NH301 pic.twitter.com/TjqmtAxcKf
— NASCAR on NBCSN (@NASCARonNBC) July 17, 2016
Still, he was able to find the positive in the day.
"Obviously it’s really unfortunate," he said of the crash. "But they knew we were here for sure ... I had a blast.”