LAS VEGAS (AP) — Few people in motorsports had as crummy a week as Alex Bowman, who left Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks ago celebrating along with his Hendrick Motorsports teammates in claiming four of the eight spots in NASCAR’s semifinals.
Then he was disqualified when his car failed to meet minimum weight guidelines — news confirmed to Bowman by a social media post he saw scrolling on his phone while already back at his North Carolina home.
He promptly threw the phone into his pool, which triggered an emergency call to 911 as the phone settings indicated Bowman was in danger. The disqualification cost Bowman 20 points and eliminated him from the playoff field just as the Arizona native was hoping to reach next month’s championship race at his home track of Phoenix Raceway.
The final spot in the playoff field then went to two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who left Charlotte thinking he’d been eliminated from a shot at a third title.
Things didn’t improve for Bowman: The window on his passenger car had been broken and he discovered a leak in his roof that needed repair.
“It couldn’t happen to anybody else that way. Just a part of life,” said Bowman, who needed a long career climb to earn his shot to replace Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Chevrolet with NASCAR’s top team.
Even after making the playoffs, Bowman has been forced the last two months to defend his seat and note he is under contract to return to Hendrick in 2025 with the full backing of sponsor Ally.
Now Ally is upset: Andrea Brimmer, the chief marketing officer, noted she was “gutted” for Bowman and the team that has “fought for every point this year and deserve to be moving forward.”
At Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend, Bowman watched Hendrick teammates William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson continue their quest for the championship without him. Bowman finished a respectable fifth — one spot behind teammate Byron — but the final insult was still to come.
Logano won the race.
So the guy who left Charlotte believing he’d been eliminated from the playoffs is instead the first of four to advance to the Nov. 10 winner-take-all championship race. One of only two two-time active champions in NASCAR, Logano has a shot at moving ahead of Kyle Busch as the only three-time active Cup champion in the sport.
Logano was already at home with his wife and children in North Carolina when he learned Bowman was having difficulty passing tech. He called her Sunday from victory lane in Las Vegas to revel in his change of fortune.
“She’s like, ‘Do you believe one week ago at this hour?’ I come walking out of our bedroom, and I said, ‘You’re not going to believe this (expletive).’ Here we are a week later. I told her, ‘You ain’t going to believe this, that we won this one.’ So excited about the opportunity ahead of us.”
NASCAR heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway and then Martinsville Speedway in Virginia to determine the final three championship contenders. “Even Year Logano” — his first two tiles came in 2018 and 2022 — will coast through the next two weeks with Team Penske and his No. 22 crew looking only toward the title race.
“Our focus now moves forward to Phoenix. The next two weeks don’t really matter,” Logano said. “It’s the advantage that we earned. We know what that advantage is worth. It’s a worth a lot. Our focus (starting Monday) will be on Phoenix, job to finish.”
As for Bowman? Well, he’s not sure how to feel about the final three weeks of the season.
“It’s one of those that’s probably going to sting for a while and depending on how the rest of the season goes, it will probably determine how quickly I do or don’t get over it,” Bowman said. “Some things in life, you don’t get over but have to figure out how to move on with your life and keep digging from it.”