The Hendrick Motorsports driver ended an 80-race winless streak by qualifying for the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs in his No. 48 Chevrolet.
During the cooldown lap after his eighth career win, Bowman was hit into the wall by the No. 23 Toyota of Bubba Wallace, who finished 13th after being beaten by Bowman.
The race ended on lap 58 of the scheduled 75 due to darkness.
“First of all, I have to apologize again to those 23 guys,” Bowman told NBC Sports’ Marty Snyder. “The bus messed up, trying to put on their windshield wipers, missed a corner and their day was ruined. That’s why I hate him. I’m still embarrassed about it, but we have a trophy to take home, and I know it means a lot to this team. He put me in position to win the race.”
The win was Bowman’s first at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since March 6, 2022. He missed five races after that season due to a brain injury in a crash and then missed three races last year due to a broken back.
“Man, I broke my back, got a brain injury, and we’ve kind of been sucked since then,” Bowman said. “You start guessing whether you’ll get a chance to win a race again.
“Last time we won, we didn’t really get a chance to celebrate. We’re going to drink too much bourbon tonight, it’s going to be a bad deal. I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. Sometimes it’s just part of the deal. …It’s going to be a great night.”
Reddick, whose No. 45 Toyota was on slick tires, moved from 13th to second over the last five laps, but fell 2.863 seconds behind Bowman (who was on slick tires) after making a mistake and hitting the wall on the last lap.
,“We were holding Alex there by a wide margin, I don’t know, it’s a puzzle to me,” Reddick told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman. “I clearly messed up. Trying to stay in dry groove, and I have more than enough dry groove, as I see right behind you. I bit the wheel a little too hard.
“Just not focused enough. I knew I was going to meet him. I knew that the sooner I met her, the more options I would have. After Turn 8 it was a bit more slow moving off the line. Yeah, unfortunately, we didn’t even get a chance to race him. hate it. It’s not about the Jordan Brand Toyota Camry, it’s not about the team. “We have to start taking advantage of that and get wins.”
Alex Bowman becomes the 12th driver to make the Cup Series playoffs this season.
Ty Gibbs finished third, followed by Hand (Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford, winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans) and Michael McDowell.
Ricky Stanaus Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10.
Bowman took the lead from Hand with a pass into Turn 4 on Lap 51 of the race, which took more than four hours to complete and finished in a Windy City evening for the second consecutive year.
Light rain started falling just before the green flag scheduled for 4 pm whistle.
NASCAR allowed teams to choose between starting the race on dry (slick) or wet tires, and many teams chose the latter, but those on slicks had the advantage because the track was in relatively good conditions by the end of Stage 1. Stayed in.
But the rain intensified early in Stage 2, and heavy rain forced NASCAR to throw a red flag on Lap 26 during a crash caution by Chase Briscoe as the 12-turn, 2.2-mile layout rapidly Had become inaccessible.
The race was stopped for one hour and 43 minutes. NASCAR also announced that if the full distance could not be reached by 8:20 pm CT, the next lap would be white flag.
The Kiwi would be unable to repeat after winning in his NASCAR Cup debut a year ago.
Kyle Larson started from pole position but was passed by Gibbs on the opening lap. Larson was involved in the first major incident of the race after the red flag. His No. 5 Chevrolet crashed hard into the Turn 6 barrier after Larson applied the brakes on the slick track.
“As soon as I hit the brakes, it wasn’t slowing down,” Larson said. “The car was badly damaged due to this. This is very unfortunate. I am disappointed. This surprised me. You press the brake zone a little more each lap as you become more comfortable, but this one surprised me.
Prerace favorite Shane van Gisbergen led nine laps and won Stage 1, but was out after being involved in a crash at Briscoe on lap 25. After winning the race in his NASCAR Cup Series debut last year, Van Gisbergen finished last in Year 2 of the Chicago Street Race.
Stage 1 Winner:shane van gisbergen
Stage 2 Winner:joy hand
Famous,
next: The series will race on July 14 at Pocono Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET on USA).
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