Alex Bowman came tantalizingly close to his ninth NASCAR Cup Series win at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 23, 2025, only to see teammate Kyle Larson snatch victory with seven laps left. Starting from pole, Bowman led 43 laps in the Straight Talk Wireless 400, but a late scrape against the wall handed Larson the edge in a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2 finish—leaving the No. 48 driver with a runner-up spot and a mix of pride and regret.
This was Bowman’s best shot yet in a season of quiet consistency—his first top-five of 2025, and a signal of more to come. Here’s how it unfolded, what it means for the No. 48 team, and why that wall clash stung so hard.
The Race: A Lead Lost
Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet held point in the race’s final stages, fending off a charging field on the 1.5-mile oval. Larson’s No. 5 car loomed, gaining ground lap by lap, but the turning point came in Turns 3 and 4. Bowman’s car kissed the outside wall—once, then again—sapping momentum and opening the door.
“I just tried to get too much there and hit the fence a couple times,” Bowman said. “Bent the right-front (suspension) and lost feel of where I was at with the right-front being bent and then really hit the fence and let the 5 by. So yeah, that’s on me. Just needed to do a better job there. I don’t know that we were gonna hold him off regardless, as much faster as he was than us, but certainly made it easier on him than I wanted to.”
Larson pounced, leading the last seven of 267 laps to claim his 30th Cup win—and his first of 2025—by 1.205 seconds. Bowman’s 43 laps led were his most since Kansas, September 2022 (107 laps), per NASCAR stats, and his 3.68 average running position topped the field. Yet, that late bobble turned a potential trophy into a P2 finish—his fifth top-10 in six races this year.
The Weekend: Pole to Promise
The sting of second doesn’t erase a standout weekend. Bowman nabbed the Busch Light Pole on Saturday—his sixth career pole, first at Homestead—with a 168.845 mph lap. Historically shaky here, with no laps led before 2025 and just three top-10s in 11 starts, he credited a 2024 Goodyear tire test for unlocking confidence on the high line.
“Honestly, I don’t think we were nearly as good as we were at the test, especially at running the wall,” he said Sunday. “I just couldn’t run the wall well all weekend really, which was what I could do really well at the test. So we’ve got to go back and do our homework and figure out why that was. But yeah, felt like our short-run speed was obviously really good with being able to drive up there and get the lead. (I) pressured Bubba (Wallace) into a mistake and then let myself get pressured into a mistake. Annoying, but I mean, Kyle’s the greatest race-car driver of our generation. If that’s the one guy that beat us this week, it’s certainly not the end of the world, but we need to go get some trophies for sure.”
That test—wet-weather laps at 185 mph—shifted his approach, though Sunday’s long-run struggles showed gaps remain. Still, starting first, leading laps, and banking a 43-point haul (second in Stage 1, sixth in Stage 2) marked progress—his best Homestead finish ever.
The Team: Momentum Building
Jeff Gordon, Hendrick’s vice chairman, saw more than a near-miss. “I think this performance all weekend … does a lot for a race team,” he said. “I think we saw the momentum building with that team at the end of last year, and you just hope that they can build on that and carry that into the season. And I think they have, but you’ve got to get the results. And so I think today is an important day for them, and I think you’ll see that create quite a spark to hopefully get them on a run.”
Gordon’s faith isn’t blind—Bowman’s 2024 late surge (three top-10s in the final four races) carried over. His 9.5 average finish through 2025’s first six races trails only Larson (5.8) and William Byron (8.0), per NASCAR.com, landing him third in points, 39 back of leader Byron. The No. 48’s pit crew and crew chief Blake Harris synced tight—Gordon’s take: depth is gelling.
“I think what we’ve worked on the most is just making sure he knows he’s got the support behind him,” Gordon said. “I think they’ve been searching for a little bit more depth in the team. I think that if you compare them to the other Hendrick teams, Blake (Harris, crew chief) was one of the steps (forward), and then he’s been working on car chief and pit crew and just putting all the pieces together. … Alex and he have always been on the same page and have a lot of confidence in one another. But when a team has the confidence that the organization is behind their moves and supporting them and the sponsors are there for them … just be in a position to go capitalize when the day goes well. And I think that’s really what I’m seeing this year in them, but also what you saw today.”
The Takeaway: Close, Yet Far
Bowman’s quip—“The internet says we’re just lucky, I’m sure”—nods to skeptics, but the stats don’t lie: four straight top-10s, a pole, and a near-win signal a team on the cusp. That wall hit cost him—bending the right-front suspension killed grip, per his own words—but Larson’s pace (19 laps led, high-line mastery) might’ve prevailed anyway. It’s a tease of what’s brewing—Bowman’s yet to nab a 2025 trophy, but at Martinsville next week, where he won in 2021, the hunt’s back on.
