As the field battled for stage points, the Chevrolets of Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain moved to the outside of Ryan Blaney just seconds from the finish line. Bowman filled the hole in the middle as Blaney fell back, but when the bumpers connected in the always treacherous tri-oval, Blaney’s car got sideways. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford bounced off the door of Shane van Gisbergen before shooting back across the track, slamming into Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet. Both cars crashed across the line in eighth and tenth. Their race was over, and both drivers ended the day equally disappointed.
“We had kind of gotten pretty far back in track position obviously; got stuck in the fourth lane and that just killed us,” explained Bowman. “Just overall kind of disappointed in myself. I made the wrong move a lot, and I crashed the No. 12 [Blaney] with just a crappy push. Obviously just trying to push him to try and help our lane for the Stage and just hit him in the wrong spot.
“I hate that I did that. I hate that I made the wrong decisions that I did, and I didn’t do a very good job today. Frustrated because we had a really good Ally Camaro today. The team did a really good job, and we obviously had moments where we were really good. But just execution-wise, I made too many mistakes and put us in too many bad spots. Obviously hate that I ruined some other guys’ days too.”
Blaney, who is the defending Cup Series champion, finished 39th while Chastain, who won last weekend at Kansas, finished last. Bowman carried on and ended up finishing 16th in the no. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Thanks to a massive crash in the closing laps, things ended up not being too dire for Blaney. He leaves Talladega 25 points above the cut-line while Bowman is 26.
“The 48 just drove straight through me”
Blaney, very frustrated with Bowman, did not mince words regarding the incident after he was released from the infield care center.
“I don’t know if he ever lifted and just drilled me from like three car lengths back,” said Blaney, who only ended up losing two points to the elimination zone. “The worst possible spot you could do it, so it’s pretty dumb on his part and it figures that he gets away scot free per usual. That’s the end of the day.”
Blaney continued: “I had a feeling that the 8 [Blaney] would pull out and help Chevy. He wasn’t gonna help me, obviously, so we got in the middle. I didn’t think it was terrible. We were probably still gonna run fifth or sixth, and then the 48 [Bowman] just drove straight through me in the tri-oval. He just wrecked the f*** out of me. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”