On Halloween afternoon at Martinsville Speedway, Alex Bowman bumped Denny Hamlin late in the race to set up an overtime restart and his fourth win of the season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Spooky vibes didn’t pervade the Xfinity 500 Sunday (Oct. 31) until late, when cautions started flying faster than the cars were running and desperation sank in for several of the playoff drivers.
Denny Hamlin SPINS!
Alex Bowman gets into him and a restart is coming! #NASCARPlayoffs x @peacockTV x @NBC pic.twitter.com/6EM9BLE8p2
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 31, 2021
“I just got loose in,” Bowman said of the contact. “I got in too deep, knocked him out of the way and literally let him have the lead back. For anybody that wants to think I was trying to crash him, [it] obviously wasn’t the case, considering I literally gave up the lead […] He’s crashed guys here for wins. I hate doing it. Obviously I don’t want to crash somebody. I just got in, got underneath him, spun him out.
“We get a free grandfather clock, which is pretty special,” he added. “I struggled here for a long time. I was trying to get the flag, do a backwards victory lap. Mark Martin thinks that’s cool. Mark Martin is my hero […] Cool to do it again.”
Hamlin, unhappy with the contact, drove into Bowman’s burnout on the frontstretch, nosing up to the No. 48 to express his frustration before eventually driving away.
“I’m not trying to drive underneath there and crash the guy,” Bowman said. “I got under him fair, under him clean. I just got sideways underneath him, spun him out. Hate to do that. Obviously unintentional. Part of short-track racing.
“I wasn’t going to get into it,” he said of Hamlin’s cameo during the burnout. “This isn’t Bowman Gray Stadium, this is the Cup Series. […] One of those deals.”
Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. ended up the four locked in for championship racing once the checkered flag flew, meaning two Hendrick Motorsports and two Joe Gibbs Racing cars are set to compete for a title at Phoenix Raceway.
Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano were the odd men out.
Hamlin, 32 points to the good heading to Martinsville, was forced to start at the back after failing inspection twice prior to the race. Larson, meanwhile, rolled off on pole with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Elliott beside him, out front for 56 laps until the No. 9 scooted by.
Elliott was leading at the lap 60 competition caution, nearly passing Hamlin to put the No. 11 a lap down prior to the yellow. Hamlin barely avoided another disaster when Ryan Newman spun on the exit of turn 4, coming dangerously close to being sandwiched into the wall.
Larson grabbed the lead after the competition caution’s ensuing round of pit stops but lost it again to Elliott shortly after the green flag flew. It was a mostly quiet rest of stage one, with few incidents marring the rest of the way to lap 130.
That was, except for Austin Dillon, whose bad day was just beginning. Dillon and Blaney were fighting for position inside the top 10 just before lap 100, contact was made and Blaney suffered significant damage to his left rear, impacting his . Dillon also got damage, but he seemed to recover for the time being.
Blaney, meanwhile, joined Hamlin as the only two playoff drivers not to score stage points in the opening segment.
Larson was hit with a pit road penalty after the stops that followed stage one but quickly made his way back up through the field as another caution flew. This was another incident involving Dillon, who had a right-front tire go down and smacked the wall. Truex claimed the lead after stops were completed.
Elliott got by the No. 19 and cruised away to win an uneventful stage two, securing a spot in the Championship 4 in the process. Larson, Blaney and Logano failed to score points, while Kyle Busch ended up flagged for speeding on pit road.
Hamlin made his way up to second, recovering after nearly going a lap down earlier, but Bowman found his way by to run second to Elliott.
A few tempers flared, with Justin Haley shoving Josh Bilicki into the corner and Quin Houff spinning the No. 52 under caution, something for which NASCAR parked the No. 00 five laps.
Quin Houff was penalized five laps for this retaliation. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/mIvDqjxC6Y
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 31, 2021
Another caution waved for another Newman spin, which came off the bumper of Cole Custer. Newman skidded down the track, damaging Ross Chastain‘s No. 42, before going back up into the outside wall.
Logano stayed out to take the lead but Elliott took it back. This all happened in front of Truex, who appeared to think the No. 19 was starting to overheat.
Two more cautions later, one for another Dillon spin, hard racing with Keselowski sent Elliott spinning to draw another yellow.
Chase Elliott spins!
He had some help from Brad Keselowski. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/qiFQcseaZS
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 31, 2021
Elliott then got damage in the next incident, which also involved Bubba Wallace and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Truex then had issues of his own, with some damage inflicted on the right-front fender of the No. 19 sending smoke billowing from the wheel well. Truex seemed to recover but started falling back, battling with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch before dropping several more spots.
Busch and Truex flip-flopped around the cutoff most of the back end of the race, but things took a turn for Truex when he slammed the outside wall on the backstretch. The contact dropped the No. 19 below the points line … at least for a while.
IN THE WALL!
Martin Truex Jr.'s #Championship4 hopes take a big hit. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/JFm3EX2pQs
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 31, 2021
On the restart, Bowman and Hamlin fought for the lead and effectively checked out, but a spin for Ryan Preece re-racked the field.
That battle ended when Bowman spun Hamlin in turn 4, setting up an overtime finish, and Bowman held off must-win drivers Keselowski and Kyle Busch to claim his fourth win of the season.
Denny Hamlin was NOT HAVING IT.
Watch as he drives toward Martinsville winner Alex Bowman's car! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/mZvEVOaH2V
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 31, 2021
Hamlin then drove up to Bowman’s car during the celebration and vented on pit road.
“He’s just a hack,” Hamlin said. “Just an absolute hack. He gets his ass kicked by his teammates every week, [he’s] just fucking terrible. He’s just terrible, and he sees one opportunity and he takes it […] he’s got a fast car every week and he runs 10th.
“He didn’t want to race us there, we had a good, clean race. I was high as I could on the racetrack to give him all the room I could, and he still can’t drive.”
"He's just a hack."
Hear from @DennyHamlin after he was spun by eventual race winner Alex Bowman. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/R0N3lSu9Dk
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 31, 2021
Busch, Keselowski, Truex and Byron rounded out the top five. Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher and Logano rounded out the top 10.
The championship will be decided on Sunday, Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway. Coverage is scheduled for 3 p.m. on NBC.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.