Denny Hamlin debates if Alex Bowman choked at Homestead, praises 48 team

Alex Bowman had the lead late in Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami but would have to fend off a hard-charging Kyle Larson for the win.

Larson, Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, might be the best driver in the sport, and proved it in the closing laps. Larson expertly rode the wall at Homestead, forcing Bowman to counter. Bowman made a race-losing error with five laps to go, making contact with the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4. Larson easily maneuvered past him and raced his way to the checkered flag.

On Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Denny Hamlin chimed in with what he would have done if he were in Bowman’s position. Hamlin said that as a leader, you want to make the challenger earn it. Bowman tried to run the identical line of Larson, and it cost him.

Denny Hamlin opines on Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson battle at Homestead

“I don’t want to give anyone the lead. I’m going to make them earn it,” Hamlin said. “Now, it might be easier for them to earn it because I’m not gonna run a line that’s going to be on a razor’s edge of it’s the fastest line, but I’m likely going to f*** up here. I’m gonna come off the wall just a little bit because there’s no amount of air that you’re going to give the 5 car [Larson] if you run three inches off the wall. He’s not going to gain on you enough for it to matter.

“I would have come off the wall slightly more and then force the 5 to make the pass only in Turn 1 and 2. The counter to that is you don’t want him getting so close in 3 and 4 to where he can then run a slider on you in 1 and 2. At that time, Kyle was really getting the top line going in 1 and 2. I don’t know. I just feel like there’s an opportunity there to make him earn it but again, I’m not in that seat. It’s so hard to Monday morning quarterback because you saw the result of what happened.

“But Alex was doing everything he could to hold him off and I think it would have been TBD on whether the 5 got around him. He was gonna be there, I just didn’t know if he was actually going to get around him if the 48 didn’t make a mistake.”

Bowman qualified on the pole and had a rocket in Stage 3. His No. 48 Chevrolet chased down Bubba Wallace and on Lap 235, Bowman made the pass for the lead. But he didn’t finish the deal. Larson put the pressure on, and Bowman fell just short.

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

“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.”

Hamlin found positives in Bowman’s overall run. He chased down Wallace and made the pass for the lead on a day and at a racetrack where passing is hard.

“I would just make sure that the other car was going to have to work me over. Not me work myself over. This is not criticism. The whole field is running inches off the wall, [and] it is so easy for us to get sucked in to the wall,” Hamlin said. “… Really, it’s more look at the 48 [Bowman] and his ability to take the lead there from Bubba [in Stage 3]. Track him down, pass him — that was all really impressive. It was more speed than I saw from the 48 certainly all weekend.

“During practice, I thought the 48 was not fast at all. But between qualifying on the pole and race day adjustments, they nailed it. Certainly, at the end of the race, I think that was the best that they were all day.”