Post-race spat between the drivers detailed in radio interview
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RELATED: Bowman puts Patrick on blast post-Phoenix
Danica Patrick‘s post-race threat to Alex Bowman‘s family jewels got the unabridged re-telling it deserved Thursday, courtesy of Bowman himself.
Bowman, the second-year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, again explained himself Thursday as a guest on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, saying he didn’t realize that Patrick was on the lead lap while he raced her a handful of laps down last Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. But he also felt like the situation, which escalated when Patrick confronted him as he walked back to the drivers’ motorcoach lot, he said, would eventually settle down on its own.
"Just a tough situation," Bowman told SiriusXM. "Phoenix is one of the harder places to, I don’t want to call it staying out of the way, but to let someone go when you need to, so it’s unfortunate. She was really, really mad. I don’t know. I guess she feels like I completely ruined her day, and I guess it’s hard for me to see how I did that in four laps, but it is what it is and we’ll move on."
Bowman, in his first season driving the No. 7 Chevrolet for Tommy Baldwin Racing, said his car had an issue setting sail on restarts during the CampingWorld.com 500, and that he needed to race harder to regain the lost ground. After passing the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford of interim driver Brett Moffitt, Patrick caught Bowman quickly, but TBR crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion hadn’t informed his driver of her position on the track.
Either way, Bowman offered the bottom lane as an avenue for Patrick to pass him.
"She struggled to get by us, and a couple times, she just drove through the corner and drove in the side of us," Bowman said. "I guess her car must’ve been free in, or she was struggling with whatever she was fighting. And it wasn’t until the next caution came out that Bono came on the radio and said, ‘Just so you know, we’re not racing that 10 car. She’s on the lead lap.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I wish I would’ve stopped a little more for her,’ but at the same time, if I would’ve just pulled over and stopped for her, I was going to lose the spot to the 34."
Patrick’s rough day was compounded by her late-race spin after contact with David Ragan, perhaps fueling the robust chewing-out of Bowman in the Phoenix garage afterward. Another factor that likely didn’t help: Bowman chuckling during the tirade’s delivery.
"I’d say it’s being emotional," Bowman said when asked if the confrontation crossed the line. "Honestly, I stood there laughing, which probably made her a lot more mad in all honesty. I was just walking through the garage back to the coach lot, and she came up to me absolutely screaming at me, which whatever, she had a rough day, I get it. And I was trying to explain, hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were on the lead lap, and she said something that I’m the worst out there and I’m always in the way and I’m always a back-marker and blah blah blah.
"At that point, I was pretty insulted and I said something about what happened at Bristol last year when she was two or three laps down and I was on the lead lap, and she was holding me up, the field got checked up and I spun her out. She tried to wreck me for the rest of the night. So then she told me that I’m a punk and she was going to knee me in the cherries and whatnot, and I just laughed at her and let her walk away."
Bowman said he didn’t feel the incident would carry over, especially not at the high-speed layout at Auto Club Speedway, site of this weekend’s Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series events.
"I honestly feel like everybody’s just going to get over it," Bowman said. "I didn’t go out there and wreck her; she didn’t go out there and wreck me. I don’t think we’re going to go to Fontana and try to wreck each other by any means. I think it’s just one of those heat of the moment deals. It’ll blow over and be just fine."
Bowman hasn’t let the incident keep him from enjoying NASCAR’s West Coast Swing. In addition to sitting in on NASCAR.com’s Spring Break party with fans in the Phoenix infield, Bowman kicked off the #NASCARGoesWest experience with a true Las Vegas wedding involving his engine tuner, Frankie Good.
The nuptials for Good, held at the Little White Wedding Chapel on Las Vegas Blvd., involved the entire Tommy Baldwin Racing crew outfitted in tuxedo T-shirts. Bowman said Manion one-upped the group with a purple, green and yellow suit — purchased at Goodwill for $13.
"When they said, ‘You may now kiss the bride,’ I screamed ‘3 for Dale!’ and made it official and it was a good ‘ol time."
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