NASCAR insiders react to excruciating moments for Alex Bowman, No. 48 team in Daytona closing laps

There was major drama heading into the final weekend of the regular season in the NASCAR Cup Series. After an early wreck, Alex Bowman was out of the race at Daytona and had to watch from afar.

A new winner and he would be eliminated from the playoffs. A repeat winner and he was in.

A simple scenario, but an absolutely nerve-wracking series of moments for the driver of the No. 48. Even NASCAR journalists were sympathizing with the dilemma he found himself in late Saturday night.

“I don’t think I would have been able to actually watch,” said The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck on The Teardown podcast. “I’m a Broncos fan. When the Broncos are about to lose a game or something I just can’t even. I just don’t want to look, you know what I mean?”

Alex Bowman was in a similar place, according to reporters like Gluck who spoke to him after the race. It was not a night for the faint of nerve.

With about 40 laps to go, Joey Logano was protecting the lead. That, of course, would have been excellent for Bowman. But Logano faltered.

Suddenly, Justin Haley started creeping toward the front. Erik Jones surged. Chris Buescher pushed into second and started battling. The top five was a smattering of would-be first-time winners on the season. Through it all, Alex Bowman was watching.

“Bowman says like throughout the race as he’s watching he’s really trying to distract himself,” said Jordan Bianchi, another insider for The Athletic. “He and the team are working on this inside prank, joke thing they’re doing. They wouldn’t elaborate on what. He was kind of trying to change the subject at various points. It was towards the end, though, you just couldn’t do it. You had to watch because your playoff fortunes are on the line here.”

What did Alex Bowman watch? He watched a riveting jockeying around for position at the front over the final two laps.

Cole Custer made a huge late surge, another potential winner that would have knocked Bowman out of the playoff picture. But finally, out of nowhere emerged Ryan Blaney.

He stormed to the front right at the death of it to win in a four-wide finish that was as close as close could be. Alex Bowman was into the playoffs.

“And it was wild to watch, because you’re watching the crew members, who a lot of the crew members on the team were on the back gate of the hauler of the 48 team,” Bianchi said. “Everything they were watching, at different points their heads are in their hands, they’re like, ‘Oh no!’ and then Kyle Larson makes this big three-wide pass. And Kyle’s coming and they’re like, ‘Go, go!’ And then Haley comes back and it’s like Custer.

“And then all the sudden Blaney is like 13th to first. And Blaney comes out of nowhere and they’re like, ‘What?!?'”

Even then, Alex Bowman and his team weren’t quite ready to celebrate. They wanted to make sure everything was official first.

“They like hung there, though,” Bianchi said. “Because I didn’t think it was that close of a finish, but they thought it was going to review or something. They just wanted to verify. Then it finally came down, like, nope, they’re the winners. And it was this sense of relief, like, ‘OK, we’ve got new life. Let’s go get ’em.'”