Alex Bowman clinched a playoff berth with a win at Chicago.
The street course race was rained out for the second year in a row, and Bowman’s decision to stay on the track on treaded tires earned him the win over Tyler Reddick in the shortened race.
Bowman stayed on the track rather than pitting during the second stage caution. He passed sports car driver Joey Hand, making his first NASCAR start of the season, early in the third stage and then won the 58-lap race. Sunday’s race was originally scheduled for 75 laps, but NASCAR announced shortly after the start of the race that the race would end just after 8:20 p.m. Central time.
Reddick, running slicks on a drying track, closed in on Bowman on the final lap, but made contact with the sidewall on the final lap, eliminating any chance of catching Bowman for the win.
Bowman is the 12th winner of the 2024 season and Sunday’s victory is his first in 80 races. He said after the race that he doubted his actions because he suffered a concussion at the end of the 2022 season and a broken spine in a sprint car race in 2023. But now he’s back in victory lane, and he joked that he and his team are going to celebrate and drink lots of bourbon.
“I might wake up naked on the bathroom floor again,” Bowman said.
Bowman had no chance to win the race until his pit call. Before the end of the second stage, the two favorites to win were Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs. Both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers switched to slicks before the end of the stage and lost track position as a result. Gibbs finished third and Bell crashed due to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. making contact with his JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr.
After the race, Bubba Wallace expressed his displeasure with Bowman, who he said ruined Wallace’s day when he was hit early in the race. Bowman said after the race that he was still embarrassed by what happened to Wallace.
Rain again in Chicago
Is Mother Nature sending NASCAR a message about racing in downtown Chicago? The inaugural race in 2023 was rain-shortened, and what should have been a good race in 2024 in dry conditions was ruined by rain.
The race started on a damp track after a passing rain shower, and a caution was brought out on lap 16 after Corey LaJoie crashed. The rain led to an eight-lap caution at the end of the first stage and a restart, but the results were disastrous, with multiple crashes in the rain. NASCAR race control realized it was a mistake to restart the race, and brought out the red flag as the rain continued to fall.
At the start of the race, NASCAR announced that due to a recently implemented rule, no two laps would be run before 8:20 p.m. The end of that rule left NASCAR battling rain on a temporary track without lights.
The race restarted, but NASCAR somehow decided it was a good idea to keep the pre-arranged caution for the stage break at the end of Stage 2. That lap 45 caution came with under 30 minutes remaining, meaning NASCAR intentionally called a pre-planned caution as the clock was ticking towards the specific end of the race.
The race got going after the caution but was soon stopped again when Josh Berry crashed into the tire barrier on lap 50. Berry’s accident sparked a sprint to the finish that saw numerous collisions and cars hitting the wall, but no crashes significant enough to ruin Bowman’s run to the checkered flag.
SVG and Kyle Larson crash
Last year’s race winner Shane Van Gisbergen crashed early in the second stage and was eliminated from the race. When NASCAR made the unfortunate decision to restart the race on lap 24, Chase Briscoe lost control of his car and hit the rear of Van Gisbergen’s car.
The contact sent Van Gisbergen crashing hard into the outside wall, ending his game for the day.
When racing resumed after a rain interruption, Kyle Larson crashed late in the second stage when his brakes locked up.
The 165-mile race was shortened from its original distance so that it was just under 128 miles by the time the checkered flag was taken, making it the shortest Cup Series race since 1992.
Race Results
1. Alex Bowman
2. Tyler Reddick
3. Ty Gibbs
4. Joey Hand
5. Michael McDowell
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
7. Todd Gilliland
8. William Byron
9. Kyle Busch
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Daniel Suarez
12. Daniel Hemric
13. Bubba Wallace
14. Noah Gragson
15. Austin Cindric
16. Justin Haley
17. Zane Smith
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Austin Dillon
20. Chris Buescher
21. Chase Elliott
22. Ross Chastain
23. Joey Logano
24. Carson Hocevar
25. Harrison Burton
26. Kazu Grala
27. Corey LaJoie
28. Josh Bilicki
29. Eric Jones
30. Denny Hamlin
31. Austin Hill
32. Chase Briscoe
33. Martin Truex Jr.
34. Ryan Preece
35. John Hunter Nemechek
36. Josh Berry
37. Christopher Bell
38. AJ Allmendinger
39. Kyle Larson
40. Shane van Gisbergen
