Alex Bowman seeks to move beyond playoff exit after disqualification

LAS VEGAS — After finding out he had been disqualified from last weekend’s playoff race and seeing his NASCAR Cup title hopes end, Alex Bowman tossed his phone into his pool and let it fall to the bottom.

“I knew my phone was about to start blowing up and I really didn’t want to see any of it at that point,” Bowman said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Little did he know that his phone detected a crash and tried to call 911.

“Luckily, your phone doesn’t have service from the bottom of the pool, so nothing came of it,” Bowman said.

That might have been the only lucky thing for Bowman, whose career has been defined by misfortune as much as his eight Cup victories.

“If there is something that the last few years of my life has taught me about is how to handle situations like this and kind of how to go through the highs and lows and, honestly, how to deal with heartbreak sometimes,” said Bowman, who qualified third for Sunday’s race.

Among his heartbreaks:

He found out he lost a Cup ride in 2016 on Twitter. He suffered a concussion during the 2022 playoffs and missed five races. He led the points early the 2023 season and a few races later suffered a fractured vertebra in a sprint car crash and missed three points events.

Bowman had to fend off rumors before this season’s playoffs started that he would be out of the No. 48 car after this year. He then followed that by scoring the most points in the first round and appeared to advance from the second round before his car was found to be under the minimum weight after the Charlotte Roval race and disqualified. That allowed Joey Logano to advance.

“Most of the (bad) things that have happened in my life have ended up working out for the better,” Bowman said. “Everything kind of happens for a reason. So for me, on my side of things, I just want to move on and continue and go be successful. Obviously, we don’t have a shot at a championship anymore but still time to do good things for the rest of the season.”

The top seven drivers in the points at the end of the regular season remain in contention for the championship.

Kyle Larson said he feels bad for his teammate.

“He did everything possible,” Larson said. “He’s done a great job throughout the playoffs. Definitely the most improved, I feel like, out of any driver in the playoffs, or any driver in the series, over these first six races or whatever it’s been. Yeah, just super bummed for him and their whole team.”

Bowman is trying to focus forward.

“Just honestly, use it as motivation to go run better,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of that throughout the course of my career. I’m disappointed, for sure, and frustrated with the situation that we’re in. All you can really do is keep digging.”