Alex Bowman charges way into Round of 12 with incredible late Roval run

CONCORD, N.C. -- Alex Bowman was the pinball that didn't tilt Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway's oval-road course circuit An illness, a confrontation and three incidents before the halfway mark didn't derail the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, who avoided elimination by a scant five points with a resilient runner-up finish in the Bank of America Roval 400. Knocked out of the playoff picture were (in order) Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones. Bowman fought through a lingering ailment that had dogged him since the middle of last week. He was at another deficit before the green flag after a crash in Saturday's final Monster Energy Series practice that forced the team to break out a backup car. Top that with a first-lap incident that threatened to halt his playoff march early, and he stood in last place with plenty of ground to make up. "Yeah, I mean probably about Lap 10 of the race, I was pretty done and out of it just from a physical standpoint," Bowman said. "I just tried to keep digging and obviously, I tried to give it away on Lap 1. As soon as I touched the brake pedal it started wheel-hopping and turned around on me. I apologize to those that got collected in that. I feel like I hurt myself more than anybody on that one. But I’m glad we were able to rebound and the guys obviously gave me a really strong car to get back through the field." That rebound came after further incidents that did halt Bowman's progress, including a Lap 23 restart led to a six-car stack-up in Turn 1 and a Lap 42 battle of bumpers with Bubba Wallace. Later, a well-timed call for fresh tires by crew chief Greg Ives and accident avoidance in a chaotic final stage gave Bowman the boost he needed to beat back the adversity. [ndmsvideo vid="6090410470001" iframe="true"] "That's what this team does, you know," Ives told NASCAR.com. "There's several instances where we don't qualify well or we have an issue. I feel like our issues today were self-inflicted a little bit. Some of my speech and words of advice didn't really go as planned, taking it easy and making sure there's a clean race car at the end. Just proud of the way the team kept on fighting." Among those on the other side of the playoff bubble was Almirola, who lined up 23rd with fresher tires on the final restart with six laps left. His No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford made it up to 14th by the checkered flag, but a brush with the backstretch chicane wall left him five points shy of catching Bowman. "I’m disappointed it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to but I’m still really blessed and fortunate to have this opportunity," Almirola said. "So many people put a lot behind me, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Smithfield, Ford Motor Company. So, it stings but the sun is going to come up tomorrow. I’m still going to be Aric Almirola, I’m still going to be a husband and a father and they’re not going to take my birthday away. As disappointing as it is, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll move on to Dover (International Speedway) next week and we’ll continue to fight and battle and it’s still really achievable to go finish fifth in the points. We did that last year." RELATED: Full results | See the Round of 12 playoff field Newman was in line for a 17th-place result that would have left him with a closer margin on the minus side, but an adventurous day ended with a late-race stall on pit road, a missed chicane and a collision with Daniel Suarez's No. 41. The chicane punishment came in the form of a 30-second post-race penalty that dropped his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford to 32nd on the score sheet. "Yeah, we just didn’t have it," Newman said. "I screwed up several times. We didn’t have a great race car, struggled all weekend, didn’t qualify good, just nothing went our way, but that’s racing and those other guys did a better job. Obviously, the Hendrick (Motorsports) guys had a great road-course package and we didn’t and we just didn’t do a good enough job, period." Busch wound up 20th in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and failed to score any stage points in his quest to stave off elimination. He was 15th in the points standings, just ahead of Jones, who finished last for the second straight week after radiator damage from a crash sidelined his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with just 23 of the 109 laps completed.