KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Alex Bowman continues to inch ever closer to his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory and Saturday at Kansas Speedway he was as close as he’s ever been.
Bowman led 59 laps Saturday evening and fought tooth-and-nail with eventual race winner Brad Keselowski in the closing stages of the race before settling for his third-straight second-place finish.
He admitted that some of his decisions in traffic late in the race likely cost him a shot at his first series victory.
“I’m not very proud of myself on lane choice there at the end,” Bowman said. “I just made some bad decisions and never really should have given the 2 car (Keselowski) a chance at it. But just made some bad calls late through lapped traffic, got tied off, had to lift and the 2 was able to drive around us.
“I just made bad decisions going through lap traffic on lane choice. They stayed where I needed to run. I should have gone high and I shouldn’t have picked the middle like I did. I just had to lift and let the 2 and the 20 (Erik Jones) drive right around me. I’m pretty frustrated with myself. There was no way around that, that was a bad mistake on my part. We’ll go home and get them next week.”
The three-straight second-place finishes, a series record for a driver who has not won a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, is the best run of Bowman’s career. He believes that, along with the recent strong runs by Hendrick Motorsports as a team, gives him a lot to be excited about.
“It’s absolutely a good day for everyone at Hendrick Motorsports,” Bowman said. “We all had really competitive cars and we really appreciate everyone’s hard work to continue to build our cars and continue to get better like we have. It was a really good day. My family is from here, so it would have been pretty cool. Probably the two closest times I have been to winning was my hometown and my dad’s hometown, so it’s just frustrating. We will get one soon.”