May 16, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Alex Bowman leads Hendrick Motorsports' 1-2-3-4 sweep at Dover

Alex Bowman gave credit where credit was due at Dover International Speedway on Sunday—to the No. 48 Team Hendrick pit crew.

With the fastest pit stop of the season, Bowman jumped to the front of the field—and ahead of Kyle Larson for the first time in the Drydene 400.

Bowman held on over the final 97 laps to lead his three teammates to a 1-2-3-4 finish for the first time in Hendrick Motorsports history. It’s the first time an organization has pulled off the feat since Roush Fenway Racing in the 2005 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“It feels right to put the 48 back in victory lane here after how many races that this car has won here,” Bowman said. “Mr. H (Rick Hendrick) is here. I don’t think I’ve won with him here before, so that’s really cool. Just so proud of this pit crew. It was obviously a rough off-season for us and a big void to fill. Not that we’re ever going to fill the void that Rowdy left, but Allen is doing a really good job and the whole pit crew is doing a really good job.

"Thanks to my spotter, Kevin Hamlin, for couching me there at the end. It was fun racing Kyle (Larson) and glad to get Hendrick Motorsports another win.”

Larson finished 2.017-seconds behind Bowman followed by Chase Elliott, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez and Cole Custer.

With his 267th victory, team owner Hendrick is one win shy of the NASCAR Cup Series record for most wins set by Petty Enterprises.

“I can guarantee you this has been the most nervous I’ve been in a race,” Hendrick. “It was a great day for the organization. Alex, congratulations to him. This is a sign of the guys working together and bringing good stuff to the track. I don’t think it’ll hit me maybe until tomorrow that we were able to finish 1-2-3-4. That’s pretty hard to do. Things can happen; pit stops, tires, anything. But that’s a first and we’ll take it. It was a great day for us.”

Larson dominated the first three-quarters of the event. In the closing circuits of the first stage, he extended his lead to 7.5-seconds over Hamlin. For the second time this season, Larson swept the first two stage wins.

Larson had led 263 laps before Aric Almirola’s violent wreck in Turn 4 triggered the fifth caution on Lap 301.

“That was another hard hit,” said Almirola, who was running 13th at the time of the accident. “My body is hurting. It doesn’t want to take any more hard hits like that. It’s just such a trying year. I don’t know what exactly happened. I think something in the suspension broke. It wasn’t like a right-front went down. It wasn’t like all of a sudden.

“A couple of laps before that I felt like I was laying on the splitter pretty hard, which is unusual that far into a run, and I kind of mentioned it on the radio and then went down into turn three, the worst possible place -- well, there’s no good place at Dover to have a suspension failure or a tire go down -- but our guys deserve so much better.

“We’re so much more capable, but God is really testing us this year.”

While Larson led the field onto pit road, Bowman gained the lead on the exit. Larson lined up next to Bowman followed by Elliott, Harvick, Byron, Hamlin and Kurt Busch.

Bowman was pulling away from Larson when Ricky Stenhouse Jr., plowed into Anthony Alfredo in Turn 2 on Lap 314. Before Brad Keselowski could slow down, he piled into the melee.

Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Logano, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher and polesitter Martin Truex Jr. used the opportunity to pit. Logano and Blaney were mired in traffic following damage from debris earlier in the race. Blaney also had a flat tire on Lap 171.

The race restarted with 80 laps remaining but six laps later, NASCAR called the eighth and final caution for debris. Bowman held serve on the restart. Hamlin, who restarted 10th, punted Blaney and moved up to ninth.

The No. 48 Chevy lapped Truex with 16 circuits remaining in the contest leaving just 17 cars on the lead lap. Although Larson changed up his line to cut Bowman’s time, his efforts were for naught. For the fourth time this season, Larson has led the most laps. Unfortunately, he has just one win for his efforts.

“That one restart, I got to his bumper and got him loose, but the 4 (Harvick) was coming so we just had to let each other go,” Larson said. “Hard to be disappointed with a second, because like I said, I felt like I did everything I could.

“We led a lot of laps and won both Stages there, so it was good points, but we would have liked to be one spot better.”

Bowman sailed on to his second victory of the year and the fourth of his career. In addition to the coveted Miles the Monster trophy, Bowman received a vote of confidence from his team owner who revealed a multi-year contract renewal is simply a “formality.”

“Just being at Hendrick Motorsports is obviously where I want to be,” Bowman said. “I want to continue to work with ally and drive the 48 car. Like he said, we've been working on it. I think I want to be there, they want me to drive their race car.

“It's cool to have a guy like Rick Hendrick says he wants you to continue driving his race car. It means a lot to me. Just a really special place to be. Appreciative for the opportunity.

NOTE: With his fourth-place finish, William Byron extended his top-10 streak to 11.

“It sucks to be fourth, but I think we’re close,” Byron said. “We just have to work on some things on our car, get the right feels, but we’re getting really close. So, we keep chipping away. We’ve had two fourth-place finishes in a row. We’ll take it and move on.”