BRISTOL, Tenn. — “If anybody said that they knew what was gonna happen tonight, we were all lying to you. We all got it wrong.”
After sweating out a curveball of a Bristol Night Race, Alex Bowman nearly got it right with a walk-off to advance in the Cup Series Playoffs.
However, when the checkered flag waved after 500 rip-roaring laps, Austin Cindric was the last driver to advance to the postseason’s Round of 12 while Bowman was the first driver eliminated, 10 points shy.
The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was in one of the best positions to win the race in the latter half, maintaining track position despite a Stage 1 spin. However, a late caution for Bubba Wallace’s Turn 2 incident bunched the field for one more restart with four laps to go. Restarts were the Achilles’ Heel for Bowman all race long and ultimately cost him a berth to the second round as he dropped from third to eighth at the finish.
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“I thought our car, when we had some green-flag running, was really good,” Bowman said. “It just cycled really poorly for restarts. I would drive off into Turn 1 and just hope to make the corner. For whatever reason, it just wouldn’t take off. Then after five laps or so, go again. I couldn’t figure it out if it was something that I was doing, not cleaning the tires off enough, but I felt like I was cleaning the tires off too much at some point. I don’t really know what we lacked there.”
Bowman flirted with the cutline on points late as attrition became rampant among playoff drivers.
Most notably, his Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott crashed in the final stage after contact with John Hunter Nemechek. But Elliott was spared a shock upset after fellow playoff contender Austin Cindric suffered a fire in the right-front of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford that forced Cindric to pit road.
As the fire continued and Cindric’s cockpit began filling with smoke, the No. 2 pit crew managed to put on a scuff right-front tire amid the blaze and kept Cindric in the race. It ultimately paid off in Cindric’s favor as he advanced — willing his way to the finish line four laps down in 30th.
“I was gonna wait till I saw a color other than smokey gray,” Cindric said about staying in his hot rod. “I don’t think the stress was there. I think everyone was pretty well prepared with the transfer of information once I got back out on track and with a scuff right-front tire, old-as-hell left-side tires and an old right-rear tire. I got a handle on the car and got all the fire-extinguisher stuff burned off the tires and dripping everywhere, and was able to finish the race. Hectic, and I’m sure it was crazy for a little while on paper.”
— Austin Cindric (@AustinCindric) September 14, 2025
Saturday night was a summarization of a difficult 2025 for Bowman, who remains winless since his Chicago Street Course triumph in 2024, and to put the icing on the cake, he struggled to hear his crew chief and spotter all night amid the discombobulation on track.
“My radio didn’t work all night, so I didn’t have a clue what was going on,” Bowman added. “I didn’t know who we were racing on green-flag cycles. I couldn’t hear hardly anything. That was frustrating, but honestly, it didn’t really matter.”
Cindric joins his teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano in the Round of 12, while Bowman was the only Hendrick driver eliminated in the opening playoff round.
Also eliminated after Bristol were Austin Dillon (minus-14), four-time 2025 race winner Shane van Gisbergen (minus-16) and Josh Berry (minus-56).
“Everyone kept their cool,” Cindric said. “Credit to all the guys from the top down, transferring information, being prepared, not getting any penalties for going over the wall. I mean everything that went on there and still being able to come out and only lose a handful of laps and be in the position we needed to. Whenever we do great things, we do it as a team.”
“A top 10 with stage points and a solid day — the guys on pit road did a really good job,” said Bowman, who swapped pit crews with the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team for Bristol. “I’m sure the guys on the 77 did a good job, too. Those guys are like family, so it’s been a rough week. Just got to keep digging, right? There’s a lot of points we can still score. We can still finish way better than wherever we’re at in points right now.”
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