Alex Bowman reflects on ‘choked’ lead at Homestead-Miami to Kyle Larson

Alex Bowman had a chance at the win after chasing down Bubba Wallace and passing him in the final few laps of the Straight Talk Wireless 400 on Sunday. Kyle Larson had other ideas.

Larson applied some pressure after working his way around Wallace. And that was all it took for Bowman to crack.

“Yeah I guess I choked that one away for sure,” Bowman said after the race, a P2 finish in tow. “Just kind of burnt my stuff up. Saw the 5 coming so moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it pretty hard with the right front and just ended up bending something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel. Then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and hung it in the fence pretty bad.”

That hit on the wall was the difference in the race. Larson had been burning up the wall too, but he showed superior control and the ability to ride his spot a little better than Alex Bowman.

Once the driver of the No. 48 car relinquished the lead that was all she wrote. He simply didn’t have enough long run speed to make up the gap with Larson.

Still, the second-place finish was the best of the year for Alex Bowman. So he’ll take that as encouragement moving forward.

“Man, I hate that for this Ally 48 group, they deserve better than that,” Bowman said. “Just a couple mistakes there. Felt like we were OK all day, that last run was probably the best we were. But hats off to Ally and Blake and everybody for supporting this 48 team. Hate it for Mr. Hendrick. Congrats to Kyle and we’ll try to get another one this week.”

Alex Bowman also earned points in both of the first two stages of the race on Sunday. He finished the first stage in second place, then finished a little further back in sixth place in the second stage.

All in all, it’s been a decent start to the season for Bowman. He entered the weekend sitting on 205 points, good enough for third in the NASCAR Cup Series. He’ll further build a cushion in the playoff standings with Sunday’s strong finish.

Though, of course Alex Bowman would have preferred a win. As he said, it’s on to next week.