AVONDALE, Ariz. - It looked like Alex Bowman was in the perfect place at the perfect time to score a storybook ending to his NASCAR Xfinity Series homecoming on Saturday evening.
Bowman shot a gap between three cars to seize the lead after a green-white-checkered finish but in the final turn, was crowded into the wall by Aric Almirola, finishing second in a side-by-side thriller at Phoenix Raceway. It was the second, second-place showing in a row for the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 entry after William Byron came home as the runner-up at Circuit of The Americas last week.
Bowman was the dominant car early, but a couple of restarts and a couple of long runs worked against him. He ran third down the stretch until a caution flag with four to go regrouped the field. From the outside lane, he split a three-wide battle for the lead but got loose in turn one after the white flag flew, allowing Almirola to catch back up. That set up the final corner as Bowman took the high lane and got squeezed into the wall, dragging the car home second.
"Just trying to capitalize on that restart, trying to win the race and got shoved into fence and the race car is destroyed," Bowman said. "Hats off to the HendrickCars.com crew. Everybody did a great job. This was my first time working with (crew chief) Adam (Wall) and that was a lot of fun. Wish Mr. Hendrick got a win there."
It certainly started well for Bowman at his de facto home track as the Tucson, Arizona, native grabbed the pole earlier on Saturday afternoon. And the early going went just as smoothly, as he led every lap en route to a win in stage one. In fact, Bowman's 49 laps led were the most he'd ever paced in an Xfinity Series race in his 54th start and the showing was the best ever at Phoenix for an Arizona native in a NASCAR event.
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But after a calm stage one, business picked up a bit in stage two and after getting shuffled out of the lead on a restart, it was a comeback tale for the rest of the day. After a third-place finish in the stage, he got caught up high on the ensuing restart but immediately began making progress again, advancing back up to fourth when a caution flag waved with 54 to go.
A solid pit stop by the No. 17 HendrickCars.com team got Bowman back up to second and he was able to get under leader Justin Allgaier several times after the restart. But Allgaier was able to fight back on the high side and as the run stretched on, Allgaier pulled away.
Bowman has two top-10 finishes in three Cup Series starts this season. He'll roll off 32nd in Sunday's main event, due to start at 3:30 p.m. and air on FS1. Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron earned the pole during qualifying on Saturday with Chase Elliott rolling off sixth and Kyle Larson 17th.
Who won the NASCAR race today?
- Aric Almirola, No. 19
- Alex Bowman, No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
- Brandon Jones, No. 20
- Ryan Sieg, No. 39
- Justin Allgaier, No. 7
- Taylor Gray, No. 54
- Sam Mayer, No. 41
- Christian Eckes, No. 16
- Jesse Love, No. 2
- Nick Sanchez, No. 48
- Parker Retzlaff, No. 4
- Josh Williams, No. 11
- William Sawalich, No. 18
- Sammy Smith, No. 8
- Jeb Burton, No. 27
- Connor Zilisch, No. 88
- Brennan Poole, No. 44
- Kyle Sieg, No. 28
- Daniel Dye, No. 10
- Harrison Burton, No. 25
- Jeremy Clements, No. 51
- Mason Massey, No. 45
- Josh Bilicki, No. 91
- Blaine Perkins, No. 31
- Kris Wright, No. 5
- Carson Kvapil, No. 1
- Matt DiBenedetto, No. 99
- Joey Gase, No. 53
- Garrett Smithley, No. 14
- Nick Leitz, No. 07
- Greg Van Alst, No. 35
- Anthony Alfredo, No. 42
- Ryan Ellis, No. 71
- Thomas Annuziata, No. 70
- Dawson Cram, No. 47
- Sheldon Creed, No. 00
- Austin Hill, No. 21
- Dean Thompson, No. 26