Alex Bowman and the No. 23 Dr Pepper Toyota Camry team finished 40th at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, June 15. After sustaining heavy damage in a lap 111 accident, Bowman looked to maintain as much track position as possible during the closing laps en route to a 40th-place finish.
In his first Sprint Cup Series start at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway, Bowman rolled off 41st on Sunday afternoon. During the opening 10 laps, Bowman settled in to race inside the top 30. Despite racing with a ‘tight in, loose off’ handling condition, Bowman was able to maintain his position inside the top-35 throughout the early stages of the race. The Sunoco Rookie contender worked closely with his crew to fine-tune the balance and found themselves racing the 36th position as they entered the lap 104 caution period.
Taking the green flag with the field regrouped on lap 107, Bowman was racing in a tight pack of lead lap competition when his car got loose exiting turn two and made heavy contact with the outside retaining wall. With significant right-side damage, Bowman brought the Dr Pepper Toyota Camry to the garage area for repairs. Parked for nearly 20 laps while receiving the crews’ attention, Bowman returned to the event focused on maintaining his track position and gaining as many points as possible. By the time the checkered flag waved, Bowman was scored in the 40th position.
“While we didn’t get the finish we were hoping for with our Dr Pepper Toyota Camry, I still feel like we had a good race,” commented Bowman. “We were able to drive through the field at the start of the race and held our track position throughout the first half of the event. The caution just after lap 100 got the field bunched back up, and I was having fun with some tight racing there. Unfortunately when our car got loose coming off turn two, there just wasn’t anywhere for me to go and I ended up making contact with the wall. The guys worked really hard to get us back on track quickly, but other than maintaining our position there wasn’t anything we could do to gain ground. I’m happy that we’ll get to come back here in just a couple months–I feel like we have a pretty solid notebook going into that race and that we’ll have a good chance at a solid finish.”
BK Racing PR
