If Sunday was bad for Hendrick Motorsports in Michigan, Monday was twice as worse. Hendrick Motorsports lost three out of their four drivers to DNFs, including the two that are yet to make the playoffs, Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman. Their only driver who managed to finish the race was Kyle Larson. While he managed to bag a respectable 5th spot finish, he did have a few words of sympathy for his teammates.
Talking to Bob Pockrass after the race, Larson seemed satisfied with his individual performance but said that it was unfortunate for the team. Aside from an empathetic Larson, we also got to hear a disappointed Bowman, who came quite close to booking his playoff berth. Surprisingly, they both used the same word to describe HMS’s situation.
Alex Bowman blamed himself for missing out on an easy victory at Michigan
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Kyle Larson was particularly down because of Alex Bowman’s retirement from the race. Bowman did a fantastic job on Sunday as he was running in second place, right before the event was postponed to Monday. Although the #48 was not the best car throughout the season, it seemed set to score good points in Michigan.
But as we say, ‘It was not meant to be’. Here is what happened on Monday.
Here is the latest incident, which derailed the day for Alex Bowman, who was looking to work his way inside the Playoffs cutline: pic.twitter.com/arWJplR6yd
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) August 7, 2023
Talking to Frontstretch’s Stephen Stumpf, the #48 driver lamented, “I’m guessing I just turned myself trying to get left a little bit, drove across somebody’s nose and I kinda saved it…bad direction…tires spun out… So, bummer… just part of restart where we were and trying to avoid the crash in front of me and crashed myself.”
The 30-year-old now has to shift his focus to the last three races of the regular season. It seems winning is the only option for him and Chase Elliott now.
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Kyle Larson seemed frustrated with the result his team managed to get
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When asked to share his thought on his and his teammates’ race, Kyle Larson seemed puzzled. He said, “Yeah, I thought overall we had a good race. Our Saturday didn’t go as good as we’d like but I thought once the green flag dropped in the race we were really good. Unfortunate about the teammates especially Chase and Alex, because of their situation.”
The reason Michigan was frustrating for Alex Bowman and everyone at HMS is that #48 was actually a good car. Speaking about his teammate, Larson said, “Alex had a great car today so, I felt like he was gonna, even if he didn’t win he was gonna get a really good finish and be up there in the points so it’s unfortunate and a bummer but we’re gonna keep working hard.”
Funnily, both Larson and Bowman used the word “Bummer” to describe their day.
Kyle Larson finished fifth at Michigan, the one bright spot for Hendrick Motorsports as the other three cars crashed out. Larson said he didn’t have a good day in practice and qualifying but was good in the race. His thoughts: pic.twitter.com/coRBep6JJk
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 7, 2023
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While race day at Michigan was one to forget for three-fourths of the HMS drivers, one man was reveling in the glory for two straight weeks, and that man was Chris Buescher.
The RFK Racing driver has won four races in his career so far and two of them came in less than ten days. Safe to say, he has found a purple patch of form at just the right time ahead of the playoffs.
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“It’s certainly very good timing as we head into the playoffs in a few short weeks,” he said as per AP.