Alex Bowman’s weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway received a second dose of misfortune Saturday with a crash during the final Monster Energy Series practice.
Bowman was already using a reserve No. 88 Chevrolet after a drive shaft failure in Friday’s Busch Pole Qualifying damaged his primary entry for Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Saturday, Bowman’s No. 88 slid out of the groove entering Turn 1 and clouted the outside retaining wall midway through the final session.
Bowman’s crew went to work preparing the backup car of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson for Sunday’s 301-lapper.
“It’s certainly more difficult here, obviously, but honestly we’ve got a great crew of guys,” said Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of competition. “Unfortunately we’ve been putting them through a lot the last couple of days in this heat, but we’ll get through it and we’ll line up and go racing (Sunday). Been a tough day, but we’ll get through it.”
Johnson shared a humorous outlook about the situation on Twitter and used it as a teaching moment for his children and others.
The incident was the latest in a rash of crashes during practice at the 1.058-mile track. Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman crashed late in Friday’s opening practice, and Kyle Larson and Bowman teammate William Byron were also forced to reserve cars after making contact in Saturday’s earlier practice session.
I’ve been trying to teach Evie & Lydia sharing is caring. I guess that applies to my “track kids” too. ♂️ https://t.co/RzRPEK2ukq
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) July 20, 2019
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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