Austin Dillon ended up being a surprise winner at the Richmond Raceway on Saturday. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman did his best to chase him but ultimately came up short by 2.471 seconds. Amidst the heat of the battle in the final laps of the day, Bowman made a grave accusation at Dillon and his team. It had to be scrutinized in his post-race interviews.
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With just a few laps remaining in the race, Dillon’s teammate Jesse Love began questionably blocking Bowman. This led Bowman to say on his radio, “His teammate is f***ing blocking me now. This is race manipulation.”
Accusing a driver of race manipulation is a serious matter. Thankfully, Bowman rethought his stance and clarified himself in his interviews after finishing as the runner-up.
He said, “The No. 33 was really fast and then stopped right in front of me for a while. I don’t know. Maybe he fell off really quickly. I was just really frustrated.” He admitted that he just needed to be better at the end of the day. It is rather interesting that Love had been racing four laps down at the time and did not have plenty of reasons not to let Bowman go past him.
Alex Bowman on the final laps and his traffic dilemma pic.twitter.com/UXvvHiXo7G
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 17, 2025
The No. 48 driver also told NBC Sports, “Needed some favors. I sure complained about it on the radio, but that’s just part of what we do. Vented a little bit but had a really good Ally 48 that last run and just burned the tires too much in lap traffic.” A part of this frustration may be coming from his playoff situation. Only two playoff spots will be open for business during the race at Daytona next weekend.
Bowman’s tricky playoff situation
23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick is 89 points above the elimination line, 29 clear of Bowman. If there is a new winner at Daytona, only one of Reddick or Bowman will get to go to the playoffs. Both will get in if there is no new winner. So, the latter must view this upcoming event as a must-win one. It won’t take another person to detail this to him.
He expressed his awareness, “I mean, I think with the way that race normally goes, it’s about a must-win at that point because I think you’re most likely to have a new winner. Just need to go execute and try to win the race. That’s all we can do.” The No. 48 crew will keep digging till it strikes gold.
