Alex Bowman prometió a Ryan Blaney ‘siete millones de cervezas’ por salvar su temporada

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One NASCAR Cup Series driver celebrated Ryan Blaney’s victory Saturday in the regular-season finale at Daytona.

Alex Bowman.

Bowman, who crashed out about 2.5 hours before the finish of the race, had to sit and watch and hope for a driver who had already won this season to win, which would keep open the final playoff spot for a winless driver.

So when Blaney earned his second victory of the season in a wild finish with six of the seven drivers behind him not having won this year, Bowman could celebrate making the playoffs.

What does he owe Blaney?

“Seven million beers,” Bowman said.

Bowman might have been exaggerating a little as he admitted his hands were shaking throughout the final laps when winless drivers Erik Jones, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece and Cole Custer all led over the final 10 laps.

After crashing out, Bowman spent the next two-plus hours in his hauler watching the race with his crew members.

“It’s been sh–ty” Bowman said. “It’s not a good time to be me. I don’t want to let my team down. They’ve worked really hard. They’ve done a lot of really good things. And the situation that we’re in coming here, it’s tough and we crash, and then something that’s outside of our control, and then you just have to sit and watch.

“It’s not fun for any of these guys. So they all work really hard, and they deserve to be in it. And I’m glad that we’re in it.”

With 14 winners this year having locked up spots in the 16-driver playoff field coming into Daytona, the top-two winless drivers — Tyler Reddick and Bowman — came into the race on the bubble. If no new winner, both would advance. If there was a new winner, Bowman would have had to rally from a 29-point deficit to Reddick.

Bowman said he and crew chief Blake Harris shouted at the television during the final laps as Blaney made a monstrous run.

“We were talking about dumb stuff trying to lighten the mood,” Bowman said about being in the hauler. “And then that last restart happened, and it was like, ‘Holy cow, we’re in a really terrible situation right now.’

“I’m certainly glad it worked out how it did.”

That looked possible when Reddick spun and his nose tapped the wall just 18 laps into the race. He was able to continue and nine laps later, Bowman got collected in a big crash that ended his race.

He spent the next couple hours in his team transporter watching the race with his crew members.

The Hendrick driver had entered the race ninth in the series standings and after the crash knew his playoff hopes were on the brink. He had started second but got shuffled to the back and felt that partly set up him being in the position he was to get collected in the accident when Bubba Wallace got turned.

“I really don’t know what to think until the race is over,” Bowman said after the crash. “I don’t get super high and I don’t get super low, either. I’m kind of somewhere in the middle.

“I’m frustrated that we didn’t stay up front, keep our track position, that we started with, frustrated that we crashed.”

Afterward, Bowman admitted he was more relieved than excited. He said he has felt gassed in the last month.

“I’m relieved,” Bowman said. “It has been such a stressful string of races. I would say Indy on has been just this incredible amount of stress.

“I don’t want to say pressure, because [team vice chairman] Jeff Gordon dice: ‘Oye, amigo, has preparado todo lo que puedes y lo que pase’. Pero desde mi aspecto, soy como, tenemos que realizar malditos playoffs. Tenemos que hacer esto. Como si no tuviéramos otra opción. “

Para Reddick, no sabía qué pensar. Sintió que cometió un error en el accidente y sabía si esos errores continuarían, no duraría mucho en los playoffs.

“No es la forma en que queremos presentar la temporada habitual”, Reddick, quien ganó el título de una temporada regular hace un año. “Teníamos que hacerlo. Todos tenemos la habilidad. Eso es difícil. Simplemente seguimos cometiendo errores y no aprovechamos.

“Ahora tenemos que combinar todo juntos cuando la presión para los playoffs … Tenemos que limpiarlo”.

Mientras que estos dos pilotos fueron grandes ganadores el domingo, pero también Blaney, que sabía que había algunos pilotos a su alrededor necesitaban una victoria, pero no sentían ningún movimiento atrevido para tratar de llegar a los playoffs.

Blaney no sabía en ese momento que un conductor lo animó para ganar.

“Ryan es un buen tipo, y estoy feliz de verlo ganar”, dijo Bowman. “Él tiene muchos grandes éxitos aquí. No sé qué decir, sino eso. Estoy agradecido de que haya ganado”.

Cuando Blaney descubrió lo que Bowman dijo sobre lo que le debía a Blaney, Blaney dijo que Bowman no le debía 7 millones de cerveza.

“Le ahorraré algo de dinero y tomaré 5 millones”, dijo Blaney. “Aceptaré esa oferta”.

Bob Pockrass Incluyendo NASCAR e IndodyCar para Fox Sports. Pasó décadas, incluidos deportes de carreras, incluidos más de 30 Daytona 500, con piezas en ESPN, Noticias de Sports, Magazine de Escena NASCAR y revista News (Daytona Beach). Síguelo en Twitter @Bobpock.

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