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Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One NASCAR Cup Series driver celebrated Ryan Blaney’s victory Saturday in the regular-season finale at Daytona.
Alex Bowman.
Bowman, who crashed out about 2.5 hours before the finish of the race, had to sit and watch and hope for a driver who had already won this season to win, which would keep open the final playoff spot for a winless driver.
So when Blaney earned his second victory of the season in a wild finish with six of the seven drivers behind him not having won this year, Bowman could celebrate making the playoffs.
What does he owe Blaney?
“Seven million beers,” Bowman said.
Bowman might have been exaggerating a little as he admitted his hands were shaking throughout the final laps when winless drivers Erik Jones, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece and Cole Custer all led over the final 10 laps.
After crashing out, Bowman spent the next two-plus hours in his hauler watching the race with his crew members.
“It’s been sh–ty” Bowman said. “It’s not a good time to be me. I don’t want to let my team down. They’ve worked really hard. They’ve done a lot of really good things. And the situation that we’re in coming here, it’s tough and we crash, and then something that’s outside of our control, and then you just have to sit and watch.
“It’s not fun for any of these guys. So they all work really hard, and they deserve to be in it. And I’m glad that we’re in it.”
With 14 winners this year having locked up spots in the 16-driver playoff field coming into Daytona, the top-two winless drivers — Tyler Reddick and Bowman — came into the race on the bubble. If no new winner, both would advance. If there was a new winner, Bowman would have had to rally from a 29-point deficit to Reddick.
Bowman said he and crew chief Blake Harris shouted at the television during the final laps as Blaney made a monstrous run.
“We were talking about dumb stuff trying to lighten the mood,” Bowman said about being in the hauler. “And then that last restart happened, and it was like, ‘Holy cow, we’re in a really terrible situation right now.’
“I’m certainly glad it worked out how it did.”
That looked possible when Reddick spun and his nose tapped the wall just 18 laps into the race. He was able to continue and nine laps later, Bowman got collected in a big crash that ended his race.
He spent the next couple hours in his team transporter watching the race with his crew members.
The Hendrick driver had entered the race ninth in the series standings and after the crash knew his playoff hopes were on the brink. He had started second but got shuffled to the back and felt that partly set up him being in the position he was to get collected in the accident when Bubba Wallace got turned.
“I really don’t know what to think until the race is over,” Bowman said after the crash. “I don’t get super high and I don’t get super low, either. I’m kind of somewhere in the middle.
“I’m frustrated that we didn’t stay up front, keep our track position, that we started with, frustrated that we crashed.”
Afterward, Bowman admitted he was more relieved than excited. He said he has felt gassed in the last month.
“I’m relieved,” Bowman said. “It has been such a stressful string of races. I would say Indy on has been just this incredible amount of stress.
“I don’t want to say pressure, because [team vice chairman] Jeff Gordon’s like, ‘Hey, man, you ready all you’ll be able to and no matter occurs goes to occur.’ However from my facet of issues, I am like, we now have to make the rattling playoffs. We have now to do that. Like we do not have a selection.”
As for Reddick, he didn’t know what to suppose. He felt he made a mistake within the crash and he is aware of if these errors proceed, he gained’t final lengthy within the playoffs.
“It’s not the best way we wish to cap off the common season,” mentioned Reddick, who gained the regular-season title a 12 months in the past. “We’ve obtained work to do. We’re all able to it. It’s been powerful. We simply proceed to make errors and never capitalize.
“Now we’ve obtained to place all of it collectively when the strain is on for the playoffs. … We’ve obtained to scrub it up.”
Whereas these two drivers have been the massive winners Sunday, there additionally was Blaney, who knew that there have been a number of drivers round him needing a win however didn’t really feel any made any overly daring strikes to attempt to make the playoffs.
Blaney didn’t know on the time that there was a driver cheering huge for him to win.
“Ryan’s an excellent dude, and I’m joyful to see him win,” Bowman mentioned. “He is had a ton of big hits right here. I do not know what to say apart from that. I’m simply grateful that he gained.”
When Blaney came upon what Bowman mentioned about what he owes Blaney, Blaney mentioned Bowman didn’t owe him 7 million beers.
“I’ll save him some cash and take 5 million,” Blaney mentioned. “I’ll take that supply.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent many years masking motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seaside) Information-Journal. Comply with him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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