Alex Bowman Takes Blame for Missing Homestead Win - 'Burned My Stuff Up'

Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman has shouldered the blame after losing the win to his teammate Kyle Larson during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami. Bowman secured the lead after passing Bubba Wallace, but a costly error on his part helped Larson capitalize and win the race.

When seven laps remained until the chequered flag, Bowman moved towards the outside and hit the wall at Turns 3 and 4, causing damage to his #48 Chevrolet. Fortunately, Bowman remained in a position to continue the race and secure second behind Larson.

Achieving his first Cup Series podium finish this year, Bowman took responsibility for the hit that cost him a potential victory in Miami and made it easier for his teammate. He said:

"I guess I choked that one away. Just burned my stuff up. Saw the #5 [Larson] coming, so moved around a little bit.

"Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it hard with the right front and ended up just bending something enough that I lost a lot of right-front feel and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad.

"So yeah, that's on me. Just needed to do a better job there. I don't know that we were gonna hold him off regardless, as much faster as he was than us, but certainly made it easier on him than I wanted to.

"So I hate that for this Ally 48 group. They deserve better than that. Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were okay all day. That last run was the best we were."

While Bowman acknowledged that the car's "short-run speed" was impressive, he stressed that the overall performance was better during a Goodyear tire test in 2024. He said:

"Honestly, I don't think we were nearly as good as we were at the test, especially at running the wall. I just couldn't run the wall well all weekend really, which was what I could do really well at the test.

"So we've got to go back and do our homework and figure out why that was. But yeah, it felt like our short-run speed was obviously really good with being able to drive up there and get the lead. [I] pressured Bubba into a mistake and then let myself get pressured into a mistake.

"Annoying, but Kyle's the greatest race car driver of our generation. If that's the one guy that beat us this week, it's certainly not the end of the world, but we need to go get some trophies for sure."

Bowman led the race at Homestead-Miami for 43 laps, the first time since his Cup Series debut in 2014.