Alex Bowman channeled fictional goofball NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby as flames boiled beneath the left rear of his Chevy moments after he smoked the field at Dover.
“Help me, Tom Cruise, I’m on fire,” he said, quoting a popular line from “Talladega Nights.”
If you’re not first at Hendrick Motorsports, you’re second, third, and fourth at Dover.
Bowman drove the No. 48 Chevrolet to victory lane at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, leading Hendrick Motorsports to a 1-2-3-4 finish.
Bowman, a self-described “race car driver/weirdo,” led Hendrick Motorsports to only the fourth top-four sweep in NASCAR Cup Series history. Kyle Larson finished second after leading 263 laps, Chase Elliott third, and William Byron fourth.
At the Monster Mile, the milestones kept on coming. Hendrick Motorsports won its 267th NASCAR race, one less than Petty Enterprises’ team record.
“I want to be the guy that get those wins for Mr. H,” Bowman said.
Not so fast, said Larson.
“I hope I’m the driver to do it,” Larson said.
Bowman won his second race of the season and passed 1,000 laps led in his career, adding that he’s “had my share of doubters” throughout his career. Hendrick Motorsports’ win celebration at the Monster Mile, on the other hand, had to be all too familiar. Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR champion who now races in IndyCar, set a track record by winning 11 times in the No. 48 car at Dover.
Johnson’s successor, it turns out, is just as capable of handling the rigors of the concrete mile track.
“I try to run the Jimmie Johnson line,” Bowman said.
Bowman has driven for two of NASCAR’s biggest names, first in the No. 88 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired and then this season in the No. 48.
He’s tried to stay out of their shadows by doing things his own way, though after some early struggles at Dover, he texted Johnson for advice, which he still uses.
“You can’t be Jimmie Johnson light,” Hendrick said. “You’ve got to be Alex Bowman.”
Bowman and crew chief Greg Ives put their spin into the game plan, and flawless pit road performance helped the 48 win in Richmond for the first time since April. Bowman is the only driver with multiple victories this season, joining Martin Truex Jr.
In fifth place, Joey Logano of Joe Gibbs Racing was the best of the rest.
A year after spectators were not allowed to attend and Dover conducted two Cup races on the same weekend, the Monster Mile claimed a sellout attendance of 20,000 fans who were eager to let loose.
Fans formed a long line at the Elliott souvenir hauler inside the fan zone, many without masks – though Miles the Monster wore his.
About 100 spectators received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccination on Sunday, and another 50 or so received it the day before during the Xfinity race, thanks to a partnership with the Delaware Division of Public Health.
While 20,000 fans paled in comparison to the six-figure crowds who jammed Dover in the early 2000s, this year’s audience seemed more cheerful. At least one fan dressed up as Kyle Busch in the grandstands, while others hugged and drank beers, and some felt comfortable asking strangers to take photos of them posing in front of the 46-foot car-crushing Monster statue.
For all but a few laps into the third stage, they saw Larson lead a procession. Larson, who visited youngsters at the Urban Youth Racing School in Philadelphia virtually on Saturday, won the opening two stages of the race and appeared to be on his way to making it a rout.
Bowman disrupted the run by beating the No. 5 off pit road with a 12-second stop and leading the final 98 laps, proving again again why Hendrick Motorsports is on the verge of extending the 28-year-old driver’s contract.
“I want to be there. They want me to drive their race cars,” Bowman said.
Only Peter DePaolo Racing (1956 at Titusville and 1957 at North Wilkesboro) and Roush Fenway Racing (2005 at Homestead-Miami Speedway) have won all four positions in a Cup race. At Dover, HMS led 382 of the 400 laps.
With less than 100 laps remaining in the race, Aric Almirola’s dreadful season continued when his No. 10 Ford slammed into the wall. For the second week in a row, Almirola has crashed out, and the Stewart-Haas Racing driver has only one top-10 result in 2021.
“My body’s hurting,” Almirola said. “It doesn’t want to take any more hard hits like that.”
Next week NASCAR heads to Texas and the Circuit of the Americas for a road course race.
On a 2021 schedule that already included Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen, and the Charlotte Roval, COTA added Indianapolis and Road America in rural Wisconsin as new road course races.
NASCAR racing uniforms are now available at the the websites below:
