KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Alex Bowman had one of the fastest cars on the track during the early stages of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, but contact at the start of the second stage made for a long day for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Still, Bowman, who started 21st, finished fifth.
“We were really good before that, and then we destroyed the race car – the toe’s knocked out of it and the body was killed,” said Bowman, who earned his seventh top-10 finish of the season. “While it might not look destroyed and we still ran fifth, these things are just super sensitive. It’s a bummer that happened. You just don’t get many race cars that are that good. We had one last weekend (at Texas Motor Speedway) and we didn’t capitalize on it. We had one at Bristol (Motor Speedway) and didn’t capitalize on it. Today, we ended up with a top-five, but I don’t feel like we capitalized on it.
“I’m frustrated on that side of things, but super proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports,” Bowman continued. “It’s not something we did or that the car did. Two guys under me decided to drive us straight into the fence. That’s Next Gen racing, though. The restarts get pretty crazy, and unfortunately, it just kind of hurt the rest of our day.”
• Despite starting 19th, Chase Briscoe drove the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a fourth-place finish. Briscoe said it was an up-and-down day en route to his fourth top-five finish of the season.
“We just started in the back, so it made it tough to know what we needed,” Briscoe explained. “Even that first stage, we had a terrible pit stop during the green-flag pit cycle and we came out about three-quarters of a straightway behind the 5 (Kyle Larson) car and we were able to run him down and pass him and get back on the lead lap, then in the second stage, we kind just lost our magic, I felt like, and then finally the third stage, we kind of found it back and our car started going forward again and was able to go from 17th or 18th back up to fourth.
“I would have loved to have track position all day,” Briscoe said. “That is the name of the game half of the time, but overall great Bass Pro Shops Toyota. We needed just a good solid run like this, so that helps.”
• Truck Series points leader Corey Heim drove from 28th to finish 13th in his first Cup Series race of the season for 23XI Racing.
“I think from the very beginning I was trying to settle in. Such a different experience than my Truck Series regular style driving,” Heim explained. “Such a different approach with aero balance and trying to find clean air and trying to get grip. It is tough. We are at the top level, and I had to settle in. It has been about a year since I drove one of these things.
“First stage was messy to say the least. I went a lap down, but the team stuck with me and made really good adjustments, and we climbed back through the field all day. We kind of just made consistent steps forward. I’m super proud of everyone at 23XI, Toyota.”
• John Hunter Nemechek finished 10th at Kansas, securing his second top-10 finish in as many weeks for the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
“We’ve made a lot of gains for sure. Last week was a really good showing, had speed,” Nemechek said. “This week, both cars had speed as well. Luckily, we were able to come home 10th in our Dollar Tree Camry. I like it. I like that we have decent speed. Solid day, solid effort. It wasn’t pretty – that is for sure, but we were able to maximize our finish and come home 10th.”
• Team Penske and its affiliate team, Wood Brothers Racing, placed all four cars in the top 11 on Sunday.
Ryan Blaney led the group with a third-place finish, which was his fourth top-five finish in the last five races.
“Yeah, overall good day,” Blaney said. “I think we were third in both stages and finished third and, honestly, we were kind of running those guys down quick there at the end the last handful of laps. I just kind of restarted too far back and had to make up a lot of ground. But really proud of the 12 boys today.”
Josh Berry came home sixth in the Wood Brothers Ford, with Joey Logano ninth and Austin Cindric 11th.
