Alex Bowman claimed his first-career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win in his 134th race in the series Sunday night when he took the checkered flag in the weather-delayed Camping World 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. The win was the second of the year for Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports, 17 races into the season, adding to HMS driver Chase Elliott’s victory at Talladega Superspeedway in late April.
“It’s all I’ve wanted my whole life. I feel like this is a lot of validation for a lot of people that said we couldn’t do this,” Bowman said. “I’m so proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Axalta and the Hendrick engine shop. My guys have worked so hard, and we struggled so bad last year and the beginning of this year. I had questions if Mr. Hendrick was going to let me keep doing this. All the rumor mills, but to be here winning a race in the Cup Series means so much. I just couldn’t do it without these guys. My pit crew is the best pit crew on pit road. And this is all I ever wanted.”
Bowman dominated the final 100 laps of the 267-lap race after taking the lead on lap 171 and leading 88 laps. But in the closing laps, he endured a close battle with fellow-Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson for the lead and eventual win. Larson, after moving ahead of a late-race battle with Joey Lgoano for second, took a quick lead from Bowman on lap 260. But on lap 262, Bowman reclaimed his lead.
“I’m just tired of running second. I don’t want to do that anymore,” Bowman said. “So I feel like this is the last box, aside from chasing the championship. I needed it personally for myself to validate my career. I feel like, obviously, there’s a lot more left to accomplish but this is always what I hear is, ‘You haven’t won a race’. So I think even Chad [Knaus, crew chief on the #24 team car of William Byron] said something about me not winning a race. So, Chad Knaus, there, we went and did it. Everybody can stop giving me crap. We finally did it!”
Larson took runner-up honors.
“Yeah, I could see him struggle when I was getting to him, and when I got by him, I'm like, ‘All right, good, he's going to be in my dirty air and get loose.’ He could get big runs on me down the straightaways, and I think that allowed him to get that run into one, and he got to the main side, and I got tight,” Larson said of Bowman. “I don't know if him getting air on my spoiler or something got him tight, but I had to kind of breathe it a little bit, and then, we side-drafted on the backstretch. I wish I would have maybe done some things different into three instead of going all the way to wall, maybe chase him to bottom, just try to hang on his quarter, but he might have cleared me anyways down there.”
Logano finished third.
“It looked like after we had that last green-flag cycle, things were looking pretty good,” Logano said. “We ran down the 42 [Larson], and I thought if we could get by him, we were catching the 88 [Bowman], together; both of us were. I just couldn’t get to his inside or outside and get a run. I would get right to him but not enough of a run to make a move. I just got tight at the end, and he drove away at the end. We were pushing really hard on the front tires, and eventually, they are going to give out. Congrats to Alex; that is his first win, and there is nothing like that. That is cool for that team, but I don't really care a whole lot about that. It is all about our car, and we come home with a third out of the day, so we will take it.”
A second Hendrick driver, Jimmie Johnson, finished fourth for his second top-five finish of the season.
"I'm extremely happy for Hendrick Motorsports,” Johnson said “I can't wait to see Alex and congratulate him, and this #48 team is smiling. It was a good night."
Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five, joining Logano in giving Team Penske two top-five finishes.
“That was a struggle all day. We couldn’t get a handle on it,” Keselowski said “We got our best at the end, which is certainly what matters. A decent day. We will take it and learn from it and move on.”
NASCAR waved the initial green flag approximately 15 minutes early, hoping to beat inclement weather in the area. The race, though, was halted for over three hours after the completion of only 11 laps because of weather conditions that included lightning, rain, strong winds and hail.
Johnson had taken the lead from pole sitter Austin Dillon by the early-race red flag and remained up front during the caution before the race resumed. Kevin Harvick took his first lead on lap 20 after pitting for new tires and dominated the first half of the race.
"It was just a solid performance for our Ally team,” Johnson said. “I'm really proud of everyone. I just couldn't clear the #4 car [Harvick] when he was so on-track and the car to beat, and I think he was probably the strongest car tonight.”
Harvick led 122 laps by the time the second 80-lap stage of the race completed on lap 160. No other driver had led more than 10. Johnson, though, had led exactly 10 by that point. Harvick led a few more laps, leading a total race-high 128 laps when he hit the wall and brought out the fifth caution of the race on lap 172.
Harvick won the second stage of the race, but Denny Hamlin took the first stage under caution. After pitting during the caution just before the race resumed from its weather stoppage, Harvick didn’t make a green-flag pit stop until the final 10 laps of the opening stage. He gave up the lead to pit for four tires on lap 72.
After pitting late in the first stage, though, Harvick stayed out between the two stages and retook the lead. Hamlin, after winning the stage, was the first out of the pits to restart fourth.
Another Hendrick Motorsports driver, William Byron, took the lead from Harvick on lap 99, but on a lap 109 restart, Harvick retook the lead he maintained for the remainder of the second stage.
Finishing sixth through 10th were Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones, Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Austin Dillon.
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