Alex Bowman's return to the NASCAR Cup Series didn't go as well as the Hendrick Motorsports driver had hoped and ended before the race reached the halfway point Sunday at Bristol.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Alex Bowman's return to the NASCAR Cup Series didn't go as well as the Hendrick Motorsports driver had hoped, ending before the race had reached the halfway point.
Bowman settled for a 37th-place finish Sunday at Bristol. A multi-car crash ultimately relegated him back to a poor finish in his first Cup race since Circuit of the Americas in March.
"It's kind of outside of our control when you run that bad. Stuff can happen and it happened to us," Bowman said.
Bowman started 27th and went a lap down to teammate Kyle Larson in the opening, 63-lap green-flag run. A caution gave Bowman a break but it didn't help him much. He dropped to 30th and finished the first stage there on lap 125.
When the race went green again in the second stage, Bowman was back on the lead lap but had trouble gaining ground by the time another caution flew on lap 145.
After another restart and 10 subsequent laps, Bowman found himself right behind Shane van Gisbergen when he spun out in turn two and piled up multiple drivers in a crash, including Bowman.
Bowman's team initially repaired some of the busted suspension parts on his car and got him back out for a couple of laps. However, the car was beyond repair to get up to speed again, taking them out of the race on lap 174.
"Frustrating day. I really struggled with our Ally 48 Chevy. I thought we were okay in practice and then just really struggled with the handling today. So bummer, I hate that. We didn't get a chance to work on it, make it better and finish the race," Bowman said.
Vertigo symptoms kept him from finishing the race at COTA and running the last four races. However, he said he felt fine in the car Sunday.
Bowman is 36th in points, now 153 points below the Chase cutline. As the standings are now, he needs to outscore the driver on the bubble by 8.5 points per race. However, that benchmark is likely to get more demanding if other drivers below the cutline, like Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric, can continue to run well.
Briscoe finished fifth while Cindric finished 16th after running inside of the top-10.
Next up for Bowman and the NASCAR Cup Series is Kansas Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports swept last year with Kyle Larson winning the spring race and Chase Elliott winning the fall race.
The AdventHealth 400 is set to green at Kansas Speedway just after 2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.