Alex Bowman found early trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, walking away after a multicar crash during Stage 2 at Michigan International Speedway.
Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was running in the 29th position when contact between the cars of Austin Cindric and Cole Custer collected him on the 67th of 200 laps in the FireKeepers Casino 400. Bowman’s car nosed head-on into the outside retaining wall in Turn 2, and the cars of pole winner Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suárez were also involved.
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The race was red-flagged for clean-up and for safety workers to attend to Bowman, who walked to the ambulance under his own power for the mandatory ride to the infield care center, where he was checked and released.
“I mean, I feel OK. It was the biggest hit I’ve ever taken in a stock car by a mile, but head-on into the wall at Michigan, it’s gonna be that way,” Bowman said. “So yeah, just try to go get them next week.”
Bowman finished last in the 36-car field. Custer was the only other driver who was sidelined, and he placed 35th. Suárez rallied from his spin to finish 14th, and Briscoe drove to a 23rd-place result.
Bowman said he saw Custer’s car break loose in front of him and the impact caused his No. 48 Chevy to veer sharply into the outside barrier. The Hendrick Motorsports driver lamented how the No. 48 missed the setup Sunday; he had started 16th and faded to 32nd by the end of Stage 1.
“It’s a bummer. We shouldn’t be back there to put ourselves in that situation,” Bowman said. “Same thing I said at Texas. But unfortunately, when you’re back there, you kind of just open the door for stuff like that to happen, and we’re better than that. We should have been in a better spot, but we weren’t and then that happened.”
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Bowman entered Sunday’s race — the 15th of 36 points-paying events this season — ranked 12th in the Cup Series standings. He has been involved in crashes in four of the last five events, including three consecutive races.
“You got any good ideas?” Bowman replied when asked how he might turn his fortunes around. “Because I’ll take what I can get at this point for luck-changer ideas. But yeah, it’s unfortunate, right? A lot of those races were really good runs. I would say Texas and Kansas, we were plenty capable of winning before we got damage. Charlotte was my fault. Nashville was my fault. This week, not much we can do.”