Alex Bowman Battles Back From Costly 40-Second Pit Road Nightmare as Chase Briscoe Dominates Stage 2 at Darlington

Jerry Bonkowski | 01/09/2025
Alex Bowman answers questions from the media during NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day at Charlotte Convention Center.

Alex Bowman’s hopes to advance to the second round of the NASCAR playoffs took a major hit during Stage 2 of Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports crew had all kinds of problems when Bowman brought his car onto pit road for a service stop. Instead of the 10 or 11 seconds for a routine stop, a plethora of issues caused Bowman to remain in his pit stall for an unbelievable 40 seconds.

But somehow, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet miraculously managed to recover and get back on the lead lap. When he exited pit road after the fateful stop, he was two laps down, but was able to climb back in the mix.

What happened to Bowman appears to be primarily an issue with a bad air gun. While the right rear tire was being changed, the tire changer had a defective air gun. Somehow, the jackman went around to the left side before the right rear tire was properly affixed.

The jackman had to go back to the right side to lift it up so the rear tire could be affixed, before returning to lift the left side for its two tires.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota driver Chase Briscoe was the big star of the race, winning the first and second stages and leading more than 200 of the first 258 laps in the scheduled 367-lap race.

Only once before in Southern 500 history has a driver won after leading at least 200 laps on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped track. That driver was Kevin Harvick in the 2014 edition of the NASCAR Crown Jewel race.

Post Edited By: Abhishek Ramesh
Alex Bowman Darlington Raceway Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Playoffs Southern 500

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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