Alex Bowman has taken full duty for the error that value him victory within the NASCAR Cup Sequence race in Miami.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver grabbed the lead of Sunday’s Cup Sequence race at Homestead-Miami with a superb go over the 23XI Racing Toyota of Bubba Wallace with 33 laps to go.
Nevertheless, simply seven laps from the end, Bowman moved too far excessive up the monitor and slid in opposition to the surface wall at Flip 3 and 4, permitting his fast-charging teammate Kyle Larson to grab the lead.
The #48 Chevrolet prevented vital injury and the 31-year-old was capable of take the chequered flag in second place, scoring his first podium end within the Cup Sequence since he gained at Chicago in July final yr.
Though Bowman is uncertain if he had the pace to maintain Larson at bay within the closing levels, he nonetheless described the race as a missed alternative for the #48 crew.
“I suppose I choked that one away. Simply burned my stuff up,” he stated. “Noticed the #5 [Larson] coming, so moved round a little bit bit.
“Not when he handed me, however the time earlier than that I hit it laborious with the appropriate entrance and ended up simply bending one thing sufficient that I misplaced loads of right-front really feel after which I pulled it off the wall too far proper there and ended up hitting the fence fairly unhealthy.
“So yeah, that’s on me. Simply wanted to do a greater job there. I don’t know that we have been gonna maintain him off regardless, as a lot quicker as he was than us, however definitely made it simpler on him than I wished to.
“So I hate that for this Ally 48 group. They deserve higher than that. Simply a few errors there. I felt like we have been okay all day. That final run was the most effective we have been.”
Bowman had a poor monitor document at Miami coming into 2025, having by no means beforehand led the race since his Cup Sequence debut in 2014.
Therefore, taking pole place and main 43 laps marked a serious enchancment within the Arizona native’s kind on the 1.5-mile speedway.
Bowman defined that he gained a greater understanding of the oval throughout a Goodyear tyre take a look at in 2024.
“Actually, I don’t suppose we have been practically nearly as good as we have been on the take a look at, particularly at operating the wall,” he stated. “I simply couldn’t run the wall nicely all weekend actually, which was what I may do rather well on the take a look at.
“So we’ve obtained to return and do our homework and work out why that was. However yeah, it felt like our short-run pace was clearly actually good with having the ability to drive up there and get the lead. [I] pressured Bubba right into a mistake after which let myself get pressured right into a mistake.
“Annoying, however Kyle’s the best race automobile driver of our technology. If that’s the one man that beat us this week, it’s definitely not the tip of the world, however we have to go get some trophies for positive.”
