Alex Bowman the 24 year old driver became the surprise winner of last Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway after lengthy delays due to consistant rain and heavy mist throughout the day.
Bowman, made his first XFINITY start of the year, led for 32 laps of the 200 in the Chip Ganassi Racing No.42 Chevrolet to win his first career NASCAR race ever. He is expected to make the transition to full-time Monster Energy Cup Series racing next season, when he replaces Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet.
The race featured ten lead changes and eight caution flags, which gave Bowman the opportunity to steadily work his way up the leaderboard before taking over the lead and remaining in the top spot with 31 laps left in the race.
The top finishers were Sam Hornish Jr. in second place in the No. 12 Ford, Ryan Blaney third, Austin Dillon fourth and Brendan Poole in fifth position. Then followed by Cole Custer, Daniel Hermic, Daniel Suarez, Matt Tift and Elliott Sadler to round off the top ten.
Meanwhile, five drivers advanced in the playoffs despite some setbacks at Charlotte. The drivers who clinched spots in the Round of 8 are William Byron, Daniel Hemric, Cole Custer, Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier.
Ryan Reed also moved on by clinching his spot by one point over Brendan Gaughan. Also, Brendan Poole and Matt Tift will be in the Round of 8. The drivers who did not make the cut beside Gaughan are Michael Annett, Blake Koch and Jeremy Clements who were all eliminated from Championship contention as the bottom four drivers in the standings.
Daniel Suarez who started from the pole position led the race 111 laps, however, a major delay in pit-road with 38 laps remaining in the race knocked him seriously out of any chance of pulling off the victory. He had to settled for an eighth place finish after having a good run most of the day until a few hiccups toward the end of the race including some mechanical challenges.
The next NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff race will be at the Kansas Speedway on October 21st at 3:00 pm eastern time. Race fans should get ready for all the action and can follow on NBC, MRN Radio and Streaming on NBC Sports.
