Alex Bowman’s pursuit of Dillon, playoff spot come up short at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. -- Alex Bowman's late-race pursuit of Austin Dillon's lead and the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs spot that would accompany it ran out of time and laps Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. Also in short supply, he said, were fellow competitors who might cut him some slack as he carved through traffic. Bowman finished one spot shy of what would have been a season-altering victory. What he needed was simple. "Just favors," Bowman said, "but sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't." Bowman's runner-up result in Saturday night's Cook Out 400 wound up 2.471 seconds behind Dillon, who clinched one of the dwindling few remaining postseason berths with a repeat Richmond triumph. The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet heads to next week's Cup Series regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway clinging to the 16th and final spot on the provisional playoff grid. RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond Bowman rounded into contention in a race marked by tire management, and the final exchange of pit stops proved pivotal. Dillon's No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevy crew brought him in for new rubber on Lap 341 of 400, briefly handing the lead to Ryan Blaney with Bowman right behind. Those two pitted four laps later, hoping that the slightly fresher tires would provide an advantage. The breaks Bowman was hoping for would have helped, but he jammed up behind slower cars as he gave chase, burning up his rear tires in the process. "The team, clearly we're not very popular through the garage with that last run," Bowman joked in TV interviews afterward, and he delivered a specific radio rant after rookie Jesse Love, in a Childress team car and who was among those holding him up as the laps ticked down to 10 to go. "Well, the 33 (Love) was really fast and then stopped right in front of me for a while, which I don't know. Maybe his stuff fell off really quick, right?" Bowman said. "I was just really frustrated on the radio. And sometimes that push-to-talk button just lets you vent a little bit. I think we just needed to be better." Blake Harris, the No. 48 crew chief, shared his driver's lament. "I mean, we got a couple out there that for whatever reason, it wasn't a matter of not letting us go, they completely blocked us for two laps," Harris told NASCAR.com. "Unfortunately, that's what cost us a shot. I felt pretty good about our pit strategy. We were on par to get there. Obviously, the way it worked out, had we pitted earlier and had to make up less distance, I don't know. I just felt like we were kind of in a sweet spot for the speed of our car, and just didn't work out." Dillon's breakthrough into the win column shifted the Cup Series Playoffs bubble heading to the unpredictable high banks of Daytona, where the real possibility of another first-time winner next weekend could give the postseason grid one last jolt. Bowman sits 60 points above the elimination line -- the same margin he had entering Richmond -- but fell from 15th to 16th on the list, in danger of being bumped outside the playoff picture. Bowman initially projected that Daytona would be a must-win scenario for the No. 48 team, but rough days for his fellow bubble dwellers may not make that so. Tyler Reddick led 41 laps in a show of early speed, but the 23XI Racing driver took the brunt of a stack-up with Daniel Suárez and Ty Gibbs. He finished 34th, and is just 29 points ahead of Bowman as the top points-earner without a win this year. Chris Buescher entered Richmond plus-34 over the cut line, but a 30th-place outcome and Dillon's win dropped him to minus-60 as the first driver out. MORE: Cup Series standings | Race Rewind: Richmond The No. 48 radio crackled post-race to tell Bowman that next week, points racing wouldn't be an objective. Winning their way in would be a primary focus. However, at minimum, one driver will make the Cup Series Playoffs field on the basis of points. If a new winner emerges and Reddick falters again, that one driver could be Bowman. "We came in here, really, with our focus on the 17 (Buescher) and the 60 (Ryan Preece) as far as points were concerned," Harris said. "So as soon as I looked, immediately I knew. I was watching where he was running. We had to outpoint them by about 30 points coming in here to be ahead of that cut line and not have to worry about somebody outpointing us in Daytona. What I didn't miss at that moment was we're within 29 of the 45 (Reddick) now. So if there's a new winner, and it's not us, it's certainly mathematically possible to get him. So, we will be points racing. I was more focused on the 17 and getting those guys, and really made some ground up on the 45, so I think even if we go have a clean day and there's a new winner, it's not out of the element to be able to do it either way." Bowman might have some semblance of help in Daytona's draft from his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates, all of whom are already locked into the playoff field. In terms of catching one of the breaks he'd hoped for at Richmond, Bowman wasn't counting on any on-track courtesy from the rest of the field. "I don't know what we're going to do aside from go to try to win the race," Bowman said. "Yeah, we'll do the best we can at that and know that we're going to get zero favors. But that's life."