“I Am Still Embarrassed…”—Alex Bowman Reduced to Tears as Bubba Wallace’s Temper Tantrum Steals Road Course Thunder

Alex Bowman snapped a winless streak of 80 races with his massive victory in the rain-affected Chicago Street Race. The driver of the No.48 Chevy Camaro wasn’t racing to finish the scheduled length but was racing for the clock before it got too dark to continue racing. Coming into the final stage, the Hendrick Motorsports No.48 team decided to keep Bowman on the wet weather tires and opted not to pit. And it worked out in his favor big time!

This was a hard-fought win for Bowman and his team, who, along the way, ruffled some feathers, most notably Bubba Wallace. He was the unfortunate one who was caught in a pile-up that was sparked by Bowman earlier in the race. On Lap 25, the HMS driver clipped Wallace’s car, causing it to spin and collide with the wall. Due to the consequences of Lap 25’s incident, Bowman did apologize to the No.23 team in the post-race interview, barely holding back his happy tears as he let go of his emotions over stagging this comeback run.

“I have to apologize to the 23 guys,” the No. 48 driver stated while acknowledging that he messed up while trying to get his windshield wiper on. As a result, he missed the corner, which ruined the day for Bubba Wallace. As Bowman took the checkered flag in P1, the 23XI driver could only manage a P13 (he was 35th after Stage 2). “I hate that! I’m still embarrassed about it, but we have a trophy to take home, and it means a lot to this team.” Why wouldn’t it, especially considering the rollercoaster they’ve gone through over the past two years?

In September 2022, Bowman was in a crash at the Texas Motor Speedway, due to which he suffered a concussion and missed races, ending his chances of making the playoffs in the then-new Next Gen car. Then, in April last year, while competing in a High Limit Racing event in Iowa, the No.48 driver flipped his Sprint Car, fracturing one of his vertebrae and missing 4 Cup races as a result. Alluding to this, he thanked his team after punching his ticket to this year’s playoffs. “They put me in the position to win the race, and man, I broke my back, I had a brain injury, we’ve kind of sucked ever since.”

Not having done too well over the past season or so, the mood wasn’t the best in his team. In fact, Alex Bowman even called himself the “village idiot” of HMS because of how badly he was faring compared to his teammates. But after his Chicago win, an emotional Bowman said in Victory Lane, “You start to second-guess whether you’re gonna get the chance to win a race again. The last one we won, we didn’t get to celebrate; we’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight.”

The Chicago Street Race win has locked the HMS star in the playoffs, making him the 12th driver to win this season. Bowman’s run before Chicago? Zero wins. The No. 48 did feel the pressure to perform – both with his elite teammates and the rest of the Cup Series field as measuring sticks – with some early signs of a positive turnaround.

“As a driver, your name’s always on the door, so you’re always going to have to shoulder that. But this is a high-pressure environment, right? Two of our teammates thrived last year, and the other two of us struggled more than we would have liked. It’s our job to turn it around and get pointed in the right direction,” he said after his top-5 finish at COTA. But with the right support from Jeff Gordon and Mr. H, Alex Bowman is back.

With just six races until the end of the regular season, only four playoff spots are up for grabs. Meanwhile, for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s driver, it was a frustrating weekend yet again.

Bubba Wallace wanted to get back at Alex Bowman

The 2024 season has been tough on Bubba Wallace and his team. After today’s race, he is just 28 points from the cutline, and losing out on precious points could prove detrimental to his hopes of making the playoffs. Road racing hasn’t been Wallace’s strong suit, but this time around, he was just unlucky to have been caught up in a mess created by someone else. The damage to the No.23 Toyota Camry was awful, as they had to pit under the green to get the car in shape to finish the race.

After the checkered flag, though, he couldn’t help but return the favor. It happened when Bowman was enjoying his victory in the cool-down laps, and Bubba Wallace pulled up right beside him and bumped into his car, sending him into the wall, making it clear that he was still upset from the incident. This move was reminiscent of what happened in Las Vegas in 2022.

Kyle Larson, in a three-wide battle, shoved the 23XI driver into the wall, and Bubba Wallace intentionally wrecked the HMS driver’s car in a “dangerous act” of retaliation. He received a one-race ban for that move. That said, for Bowman, the race was the fix he needed! As for Bubba Wallace, he might be in trouble, both for his pocket and the playoffs, as NASCAR officials caught sight of it.

We have seen NASCAR reprimand drivers this season, so Wallace would hope the penalty isn’t too severe. Despite wrecking early in the race, the 23XI Racing star ended the race in 13th place, thus keeping himself alive to qualify for the playoffs.