Although Chase Elliott was the one celebrating in Victory Lane at the end of Saturday‘s drafting-style showdown at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), it was Alex Bowman who played a vital role in securing the win for Hendrick Motorsports.
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Bowman finished in the top 10 across all three categories tracked by NASCAR Insights metrics from EchoPark, with his best ranking being third in Restart Rating, enabling the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet to stay competitive during the final-stage restarts. Bowman was one of only two drivers in the top-five finishing order to rank in the top five in the restart category — the other being Elliott.
The other category in which the driver from Tucson, Arizona, shone brightly was his Passing Rating, where he ranked fourth, and it was showcased in those final laps, maneuvering through the field with his Hendrick Motorsports counterpart in the No. 9 Chevrolet and eventually propelling Elliott past Brad Keselowski for the race win.
After helping Elliott to Victory Lane on Saturday, Bowman now becomes the only driver in the Hendrick Motorsports camp who is winless for the 2025 season. Fret not, Bowman fans, the race on the streets of Chicago on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, TruTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) is where he secured a win last year that put himself in the postseason conversation.
Bowman’s third-place finish at EchoPark also advanced him into the second round of NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Challenge, eliminating No. 25 seed and defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano. Bowman now squares off against No. 9 seed Bubba Wallace at a track where the two had a slight dustup on the cool-down lap.
Other notables from last weekend’s race:
- Zane Smith’s second-place ranking in Restart Rating allowed the driver of the No. 38 to stay up front, being one of three Fords to finish inside the top 10.
- Carson Hocevar’s first-place ranking in Passing Rating indicated that, despite the damage from in-race incidents, he was still able to position his car for a top-10 run.
- AJ Allmendinger’s ninth-place ranking in Restart Rating put him in position to vault past Michael McDowell and move on to Round 2 in the In-Season Challenge.
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