HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Alex Bowman had the lead in the waning moments of Sunday‘s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But one errant move allowed his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson to power past him for the win instead.
Though the disappointment of a missed opportunity to score his ninth NASCAR Cup Series victory was apparent, Bowman mustered a fair share of smiles on pit road after his first top-five finish of 2025.
MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead
Larson‘s No. 5 Chevrolet continued to gain on Bowman‘s No. 48 car as the laps ticked away, but Bowman‘s prolonged slide against the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 negated his momentum and allowed Larson to pounce past him with seven laps to go.
“I just tried to get too much there and hit the fence a couple times,” Bowman said. “Bent the right-front (suspension) and lost feel of where I was at with the right-front being bent and then really hit the fence and let the 5 by.
“So yeah, that‘s on me. Just needed to do a better job there. I don’t know that we were gonna hold him off regardless, as much faster as he was than us, but certainly made it easier on him than I wanted to.”
The sting of a loss doesn‘t negate what was a strong weekend for the No. 48 team at a track where Bowman has historically struggled. Bowman powered to the pole position in Saturday‘s qualifying session to start first, led 43 laps and notched a race-best 3.68 average running position Sunday in addition to his top-five finish. His 43 laps led at Homestead are his most since September 2022, when he led 107 laps at Kansas Speedway.
“I think this performance all weekend … does a lot for a race team,” said Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman. “I think we saw the momentum building with that team at the end of last year, and you just hope that they can build on that and carry that into the season. And I think they have, but you‘ve got to get the results.
“And so I think today is an important day for them, and I think you’ll see that create quite a spark to hopefully get them on a run.”
MORE: xx
Bowman had never led a lap at Homestead previously but owns three top 10s there in his past four starts, including Sunday‘s personal best. He attributed his progress to a 2024 test at the 1.5-mile oval. The intent of those extra laps were to help Goodyear develop wet-weather tires, but Bowman left with more confidence riding the high line nearest the wall than he ever had previously.
“Honestly, I don’t think we were nearly as good as we were at the test, especially at running the wall,” he said Sunday. “I just couldn’t run the wall well all weekend really, which was what I could do really well at the test. So we‘ve got to go back and do our homework and figure out why that was. But yeah, felt like our short-run speed was obviously really good with being able to drive up there and get the lead. (I) pressured Bubba (Wallace) into a mistake, and then let myself get pressured into a mistake.
“Annoying, but I mean, Kyle’s the greatest race-car driver of our generation. If that’s the one guy that beat us this week, it’s certainly not the end of the world, but we need to go get some trophies for sure.”
The runner-up effort marks Bowman‘s best of what‘s been an impressive start to the season, his fifth top 10 in six races and fourth in a row. The Tucson, Arizona, native joked: “The internet says we‘re just lucky, I‘m sure,” but echoed Gordon‘s observation of the improved performance by the end of 2024.
What Gordon also reiterated Sunday was his and the team‘s belief in Bowman moving forward.
“I think what we’ve worked on the most is just making sure he knows he’s got the support behind him,” Gordon said. “I think they’ve been searching for a little bit more depth in the team. I think that if you compare them to the other Hendrick teams, Blake (Harris, crew chief) was one of the steps (forward), and then he’s been working on car chief and pit crew and just putting all the pieces together. …
“Alex and he have always been on the same page and have a lot of confidence in one another. But when a team has the confidence that the organization is behind their moves and supporting them and the sponsors are there for them … just be in a position to go capitalize when the day goes well. And I think that’s really what I’m seeing this year in them, but also what you saw today.”
Read the full article here
