MARTINSVILLE, Virginia – A wild finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway saw a driver already eliminated from the NASCAR playoffs take out leader and championship contender Denny Hamlin in the closing laps.
Alex Bowman won his fourth race of the season, but it was the race-winning pass that left Hamlin fuming. After running 10-12 laps in a fantastic side-by-side battle, Bowman’s Chevrolet drifted up the track and made contact Hamlin’s Toyota in turn three on lap 494.
Hamlin didn’t like the move and after the race was restarted with two laps to go, Bowman was able to defeat Kyle Busch by 0.472-of-a-second.
When Bowman stopped at the finish line to celebrate the victory, Hamlin’s Toyota blocked him from moving forward.
“OK, Denny. Big picture, here. Big picture,” Hamlin’s team radioed to him as he eventually pulled away and let Bowman celebrate.
Hamlin was furious afterwards on pit lane.
“He’s just a hack, an absolute hack,” Hamlin said of the driver of Bowman. “He gets his ass kicked by his teammates every week and he’s terrible. Absolutely terrible. He gets the best car every week and he finish 10th.
“We got in and did what we had a do, but I just want to race at the end. He’s just terrible.”
Bowman said he didn’t mean to spin Hamlin at the end of the race and was surprised with the retaliation.
“This isn’t Bowman Gray Stadium,” Bowman said. “That might have made the highlight reels, but that’s one of those deals.
“Have you ever been to Bowman Gray Stadium? I’ve gone there and watched. That’s what it felt like. When they had that TV show with the mods running there, I watched the heck out of that. It was really entertaining then. Not so entertaining when you’re living it.
“I just didn’t want to be a part of that, make us both look dumb. So, I just tried to not be a part of it. I wasn’t going to try to do stuff like that. That’s not who I am.
“I understand why he’s mad. I’d be mad, too. I drove off into the corner, got loose, spun him out. At the same time, I didn’t do it on purpose. If I did, I’d tell you. That’s part of it.”
It was Bowman’s fourth win of the season, his first since the first race of a doubleheader at Pocono Raceway on June 26.
NASCAR’s Championship 4 consists of Kyle Larson, who had already advanced by winning the previous two races. Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. also advanced.
Those four drivers will fight it out for the championship next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in the NASCAR Cup season-finale.
The four drivers who were eliminated include Kyle Busch, who missed advancing by three points. Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were also eliminated.
After all the furor and hot tempers simmered down, Bowman was able to talk about his role in the finish.
“I’m definitely extremely happy to be able to get a fourth win for the 48 this year,” Bowman said. “It’s been a rough couple months on us since we started the playoffs. To come here with such a fast race car, the capability of winning is awesome.
“I hate that we got into the 11 (Hamlin) It was unintentional. I just got underneath him and spun him out. I’d be mad, too. I get it. But he’s been on the other side of that enough to understand.
“I’m glad to come out of it with a trophy.”
Bowman also spoke about his previous run-ins with Hamlin.
“He crashed me at Texas last year, I texted me and apologized,” Bowman explained. I said he’d give me a ride on his jet.
“I don’t know. We’re even, I guess, after that. He crashed the heck out of me there. He got loose underneath me, exact same thing just on a bigger racetrack. Yeah, sarcasm there obviously. Just my point is the shoe has been on the other foot. Like we’ve been on both sides of it.”
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Elliott led the most laps in the race with 289. Hamlin was next with 103.
The race winner led the final nine laps, but it was enough to score his fourth win of the season – doubling his career victory total when he entered the season.
“These last couple months have been painful,” Bowman said. “It’s been so frustrating. Honestly, our teammates have kicked our butts for quite a while now. I think Greg and myself have both been pretty down and frustrated, not understood what was going on. We weren’t doing things any differently. We weren’t approaching weekends differently. We just have been off.
“To come to a place that was probably our worst place when we started together, have such a good day, get another win, it feels great. Obviously four wins this year feels great. Wish we were in the Round of 4. We just need to figure out consistency and this team will be something really, really special.
“I think I was really confident coming into this year. We entered the Playoffs super strong last year. I feel like we didn’t get much credit for it, but I think we scored the second most points of anybody, didn’t have the Playoff points to fall back on because our summer wasn’t it needed to be. Finished sixth in points, were really fast.
“I was confident coming into this year. But the thing that I’ve always circled is to just try to be consistent, consistently run well. We’ve struggled to do that. It’s really hard for me to be super excited right now. The beginning of the season if you told me I was going to win four times, I’d be pretty excited.
“I wish we were going to Phoenix with a chance to win the championship. It has been painful to kind of go through the Playoffs the way they’ve been. But it’s awesome to at least start to end the year on a strong note.”
In the end, Bowman clock blocked Hamlin, spun him out and took home the Martinsville Speedway grandfather clock for himself.
“I don’t have a place for it,” Bowman said. “I haven’t even thought that far ahead. Way too much drama for my brain to process. I don’t really know what to do with myself up there. A little awkward.
“I don’t really have a good spot for it the way my house is. I’m going to have to knock a wall down or something, construction project going on this winter.”
Said crew chief Greg Ives, “Maybe we’ll do that tonight.”