Alex Bowman ended an 80-race winless streak with a victory in the Grant Park 165 on July 7 (Sunday) after sundown shrunk the race down to 58 laps.
Bowman, running on wet weather tires, passed Joey Hand for the lead on lap 51 and built a massive lead over the field before the NASCAR countdown clock expired to signify two laps to go.
Bowman’s last win came at Las Vegas in March 2022. Later in the season, he endured a concussion and missed five races. He also fractured his back in a dirt sprint car crash and missed three races last season, ending his bid at five straight playoff appearances.
Bowman said those hardships make his eighth career win, his first on a road course, mean so much more.
“I broke my back, I had a brain injury, and we’ve kind of sucked ever since,” Bowman said in a post-race interview with NBC. “You start to second guess if you’re ever going to win a race again. Last one we won, we really didn’t get to celebrate. We’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight. It’s going to be a bad deal. I’m probably going to wake up on the bathroom floor again but that’s part of this deal sometimes.”
Tyler Reddick was cutting into Bowman’s lead on slick tires but nicked the wall on the final lap in turn five. Ultimately, Reddick settled for a runner-up finish and had to wrestle mentally with another missed opportunity.
“We were catching Alex by a large margin there, and I don’t know, that puzzles me,” Reddick said while viewing an NBC replay. “I just screwed up. I had more than enough of a dry groove, as I can see. I cut the wheel a little too hard. Not focused enough.”
“Just didn’t even give us a shot to race him, unfortunately. I hate it. Not what this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry is about, not what this team is about. I’ve got to start capitalizing and getting these wins.”
Reddick’s 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace drew attention during a post-race dust-up when he ran with the winner Bowman into the wall post-race. Contact between the duo in stage two relegated Wallace to the back of the pack. Wallace finished 13th.
Ty Gibbs led a race-high 17 laps and finished third. Hand, running a one-off in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford entry, led seven laps thanks to pit strategy and finished fourth. Michael McDowell rounding out the top five.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney made up the rest of the top-10 finishers.
The odds-on favorites entering the race were Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson. Van Gisbergan saw his hopes of a weekend sweep in Chicago end on lap 25 when a spinning Chase Briscoe clipped the back of his car, sending the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevy into the turn six concrete barrier.
SVG finished 40th after winning the Xfinity Series race on Saturday and winning stage one on Sunday.
“I just got taken out,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s gutting, you know? The Saucy Nuggs Camaro was really good, and I don’t know, I felt like I was driving well within myself the whole race, under control. And that restart, I looked behind in turn six and I had a decent gap behind me and just turned in and, yeah. Took me by surprise there.”
“It’s frustrating. Obviously, we had a car good enough to win.”
Larson finished 39th after sliding head-on into the turn six tire barriers on lap 34. Larson was running third at the time of the accident.
“As soon as I hit the brake pedal, it was not slowing down,” Larson said. “I just assumed I was locked up.”
Gibbs jumped out to the lead on the initial start. The opening stage split the field into those who started on slicks and those who opted for wet weather tires. While there were showers at various spots and times in the opening stage, most who opted for wet weather tires either pitted for slicks or fell off the pace.
The slower cars eventually played a role in the stage win. When Gibbs was hung up in lapped traffic, van Gisbergen made a bold three-wide move on lap 12 in turn 12 to take the lead.
Corey LaJoie brought out the first caution of the race on lap 17 with a spin off turn four. Heavier rain brought the stage to an end with van Gisbergen picking up the stage win. Bells, Gibbs, Briscoe and Larson made up the top-five stage points finishers.
The opening green flag lap of stage 2 was chaotic and ultimately altered the course of the day. With rain starting to pick up, Wallace spun and collected Daniel Suarez in turn two while Briscoe clipped van Gisbergen in turn six to bring out the caution.
A red flag for standing water soon turned into a weather delay due to heavy rain. Once the cars retook the track an hour and 43 minutes later, with 50 laps to go, it became a race to darkness.
After another strong restart by Gibbs, Bell made a pass for the lead in turn seven on lap 30. Four laps later, Larson brought out the caution for his accident in turn six.
With three laps to go in stage 2 and about half an hour until sundown, differing pit strategies sent the leaderboard into chaos. After a group of cars pitted for slick tires, Bell and most of the frontrunners followed with two laps until the stage break.
The exceptions were Hand and Bowman, who raced to the green-checkered flag to decide a stage winner. Hand held off Bowman at the line with Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar and Martin Truex Jr rounding out the top-five finishers in the stage.
Hand staved off Bowman for a few laps after the restart, but Bowman made the pass on lap 51 moments before a caution when Josh Berry buried his car into the turn two tire barrier.
When the clock struck 8:20 p.m. local time, NASCAR rules officially made the race into a two-lap shootout.
Reddick, who managed a three-wide pass for third just a minute earlier, was able to be within two seconds of Bowman when they took the white flag. His mistake made the final margin of victory 2.863 seconds.
Grant Park 165 Results
The Cup Series’ next stop is the tricky triangle for the Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com on June 14 at Pocono Raceway. Coverage on USA Network begins at 2:30 p.m. ET.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with of football, music, anime and video games.
Awe bubba….. Alex is in lololol
In order to pass cars he needs to be on slicks and the others on rain tires. Maybe NA$CAR will make it a “rule.”
I wonder if his shrink is on speed dial !
And maybe some anger management classes!
Maybe, if the race starts at 1:00 local time we don’t have to worry about darkness. Oh that’s right, TV determines starting times now.