MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Alex Bowman was the only driver celebrating after NASCAR set its championship four — and he’s not even racing for the title.
Bowman picked up the victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in the final elimination race ahead of the winner-take-all season finale. Bowman wasn’t eligible to make the championship round and his overtime victory denied both Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski the final spot in the field.
The Cup will be decided next Sunday at sold-out Phoenix Raceway between favorite Kyle Larson and reigning champion Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports and Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. for Joe Gibbs Racing. It will pit a pair of Hendrick Chevrolets against two JGR Toyotas.
“I think the four most deserving teams are probably in the final four,” said Larson, the regular-season champion and title favorite. “I’m proud we were able to do it and look forward to battling everybody next week.”
Ford was locked out of the championship when Keselowski and Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano failed to advance.
Busch finished second to Bowman and Keselowski at last settled for third after a frantic push through the third stage. Truex’s car was damaged in several incidents and both Busch and Keselowski were trying to bump Truex out of the final transfer position.
It led to spirited racing up and down the grid, especially from Keselowski as he tried to bulldoze his way into the championship round for his final race driving for Roger Penske. He and Busch had hard contact after the checkered flag that caused Busch to spin on the cool down lap, and Busch seethed after that he should beat up Keselowski.
His verbal threats were a milder approach than the one taken by JGR teammate Hamlin after Bowman spun Hamlin from the lead with six laps remaining to send the race into overtime.
Hamlin had led 103 laps with victory in sight when Bowman spun him. Hamlin after the race drove his car to the frontstretch and parked in front of Bowman to prevent Bowman from a proper celebration on Bowman’s fourth win of the season.
Bowman insisted the contact with Hamlin was accidental.
“I just got loose in, I got in too deep, knocked him out of the way and literally let him have the lead back,” Bowman said. “For anybody that wants to think I was trying to crash him, that obviously literally wasn’t that case considering I gave up the lead at Martinsville to give it back to him.”
Bowman was referring to an earlier incident, not the contact that fully spun Hamlin’s car and dropped him to a 24th-place finish.
“He’s been on the other side of that. He’s crashed guys here for wins. I hate doing it. … I just got in, got underneath him, spun him out,” Bowman said. “Regardless, we get a free grandfather clock, which is pretty special.”
Martinsville presents its race winners with a traditional grandfather clock considered one of the most coveted trophies in NASCAR.
Hamlin, who already has five clocks, still advanced into the championship on points. But his JGR crew had to radio Hamlin to back off as he confronted Bowman, who gave Hendrick Motorsports its 16th win in 35 races this season and fourth in a row.
“He’s just a hack, just an absolute hack who gets his ass kicked every week by his teammates,” said Hamlin, a Virginia native who audibly did not have any home crowd support.
The well-filled grandstands erupted in cheers when Bowman spun Hamlin, and then loudly booed him when he was interviewed over the public address system. Asked after if he was surprised by the fan reaction, Hamlin blamed most-popular driver Elliott and predicted the same reaction next week at Phoenix.
“It’s just Chase Elliott fans, man. They don’t think straightly,” Hamlin said. “They’re going to boo the [crap] out of me next week, I can tell you that.”
Elliott shrugged off Hamlin’s critique.
“I’m going to lose so much sleep tonight. I might not sleep at all, that’s how concerned I am,” he smiled. “My fans don’t care either, by the way.”
Hamlin will try for a fourth time to win his first Cup title. Both he and Larson, the heavy favorite and a nine-race winner this season, have never won a NASCAR championship. Elliott is the reigning champion and Truex, who had to nurse a wounded Toyota to a fourth-place finish Sunday to stop teammate Busch from bumping him out of the finale, has one previous title.
But the final four festivities were muted with Hamlin unhappy about the finish, Elliott disappointed he was 16th after leading a race-high 289 laps and sweeping the first two stages and Larson unsatisfied when speeding penalties and silly mistakes snapped his three-race winning streak.
Truex, at least, seemed relieved.
“It’s never an easy situation to be kind of on your last run of the race, be in one minute and out the next,” he said. “You know there’s not a whole lot you can do other than drive.”
Busch and Keselowski, meanwhile, were also unhappy. Keselowski wanted a shot at winning a second title with Penske, and Busch was upset he didn’t advance with teammates Hamlin and Truex.
“Anytime you go into a season with Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, this 18, M&M’s team, myself, you expect to be championship four, in contention, eligible,” Busch said. “Anything other than that is a failure. Guess [I] get an F.”
UP NEXT: The championship finale Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where Elliott won the race last year to claim his first Cup championship. Truex won in March.
