Bowman Finishes 17th at the Monster Mile

Alex Bowman came into the Dover International Speedway with high hopes already having one Nationwide Series start at the track called “The Monster Mile” but wasn’t able to get the finish the team had hoped for.

 

The weekend started off great with the No. 99 RAB Racing St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/SchoolTipline.com Toyota Camry setting the second fastest lap in the only practice session. That raw speed saw Bowman and the team qualify in the fourth position for the 5-hour Energy 200. Bowman raced in the top 10 all day long, but a loose race car, and a few on track mishaps relegated the team back to a 17th place finish.

 

Alex Bowman: “Well this isn’t the day I thought we were going to have at all. My crew chief Chris Rice found us a lot of speed on Friday in practice, and also for qualifying, but when we had a long green flag run we were just too loose to stay in the lead pack. It’s unfortunate because here’s another example of having a good car, but not getting the finish where we were running for most of the day. With about 80 laps to go we got the track position we were looking for by taking two tires, and were in the top 10 until I received contact on multiple occasions. Each time it happened I lost 3-4 spots and just put us in a bad position where we couldn’t get it back. I hate it for my guys, but on the bright side we have a car in one piece with barely a mark on it, which means we can continue to work on it and make it better.”

 

Chris Rice: “What a day we had but at the end of it I’m really proud of our RAB Racing team, and our driver Alex Bowman. The entire race was based on track position because everyone in top 15 ran the same lap times as soon as there was about 10 laps on the tires, which made it extremely difficult to pass another car. This also meant that anytime a mistake was made, or Alex got hit and had to chase the car up the race track, he lost a bunch of positions and time that it was almost impossible to get it back. I can say that I’m very thankful of the job Alex did in saving a loose race car, and getting knocked around to bring that car home with no damage. It may not be the finish we were looking for, but we can now take that car, learn from it, and make it better and faster next time we use it instead of repairing it.”

 

The 17th place finish has moved Bowman to the 11th position in drivers points standings and Robby Benton to 15th place in owner’s points. The next race is the Pioneer Hi-Bred 250 at the Iowa Speedway on Saturday June 8th, which will be televised live on ESPN.

 

RAB Racing PR