Alex Bowman narrowly missed out on a podium finish for the Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, having twice led the race.
.@AlexBowman88 charged his way to his sixth top-five finish of the season @TXMotorSpeedway!
Catch up on all the action from the Lone Star State.https://t.co/WZiW1JElrU
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) October 29, 2020
Bowman rolled off the line fifth in his No. 88 Acronis but took over the lead of the race on lap 29 before reporting his Chevrolet Camaro was ‘a little free’, leading to a pit road for four tires, fuel, added tape and an air pressure adjustment.
After a lengthy 72-hour weather break, the cars got rolling once again on Wednesday afternoon with Bowman resuming 16th. Another caution saw Bowman pit under yellow for four tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment, and a track-bar adjustment.
Restarting 24th on Lap 81, the Acronis 88 steadily sliced his way through the field and back into the lead but his chances of victory were dealt a blow when the team had an issue leaving the box, putting Bowman in ninth position on the Lap 138 restart.
With two laps to go in Stage Two, Bowman was third and would end the stage in that position, earning valuable stage points, before finally taking the flag fifth at the conclusion of the 500-mile event, eventually won by Kyle Busch.
“Not the day we really wanted,” said Bowman after recording his sixth top-five and 14th top-10 finish this season. I had a really fast car, but pit strategy didn’t completely go our way. Some restarts were painful. When the sun came out, it was really fast.
“Some guys were really trimmed out and as cold as it was it seemed to really help them. Bummed out with fifth. I feel like we probably had the best handling race car and just came up a little short. Overall a good day and proud of everybody. So proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for bringing really great driving cars to the track every week. Proud of everyone at Chevrolet and a big thanks to Acronis for being on board.”
We had a really fast car today… bummed with 5th but proud of my team and everyone @TeamHendrick. On to Martinsville pic.twitter.com/0AYFYjDfpK
— Alex Bowman (@AlexBowman88) October 29, 2020