Alex Bowman bests Larson, scores first Cup win at Chicagoland

Bowman earned his first Cup Series victory in 134 starts by holding off a wild challenge from Kyle Larson in Sunday’s Camping World 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Larson actually was able to run down Bowman to take the lead with eight of 267 laps remaining, only to see Bowman run him back down and reclaim it three laps later.

"This is what I wanted my whole life," Bowman said. "I feel this is validation for a lot of people who said we couldn't do this. I'm so proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. My guys have worked so hard. I had questions if (Rick Hendrick, team owner) was going to let me keep doing this and everything that was in the rumor mill.

"To be here, winning a race in the Cup series means so much. I couldn't do it without these guys, My pit crew is the best pit crew on pit road. This is all I've ever wanted."

Asked he he regrouped and passed Larson for the win for the final time, Bowman said, "I was just tired of running second. I don't want to do that anymore. 

"I feel like this is the last box aside from going and chasing a championship that I personally for myself needed to validate my career. I feel like there is a lot more left to accomplish, but this has always been what I hear: 'You haven't won a race.'

"Everybody can stop giving me crap - we finally did it!"

Earlier this month, Hendrick Motorsports announced one of Bowman’s primary sponsors, Nationwide, would be leaving the No. 88 team at the end of the season.

Joey Logano finished third, Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Brad Keselowski completed the top-five.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Kevin Harvick the first off pit road. On the restart on Lap 168, Harvick led the way followed by Larson, Bowman and Johnson.

Denny Hamlin was penalized for having too many crew members over the wall during his pit stop and had to restart from the rear of the field.

Larson powered past Harvick on the restart to take the lead for the first time in the race as Harvick dropped to second and Bowman ran third.

Kyle Busch was forced to pit on Lap 169 after contact with Logano on the track left him with a flat tire.

On Lap 171, Bowman got by Harvick and Larson to move into the lead for the first time in the race.

Harvick pancaked the wall on Lap 172 to bring out a caution. Several drivers elected to pit but Bowman and many others remained on the track. On the restart on Lap 177, Bowman led followed by Larson, Johnson, Aric Almirola and Martin Truex Jr.

On Lap 186, Clint Bowyer took his No. 14 Ford to the garage for repairs. He experienced several tire issues during the race.

With 75 laps remaining in the race, Bowman had moved out to a 1.4-second lead over Johnson with Larson running in third. Logano was fourth and William Byron fifth.

After 107 laps, Bowman had opened the biggest lead of the race – just over three seconds – on Larson as Johnson moved to third. 

With 50 laps to go, Ryan Newman and Logano were the first to drop to pit road for their final pit stop of the race. Larson and Truex followed with 149 laps left. Bowman made his stop on Lap 220.

Once the cycle of stops were completed with 42 seconds to go, Bowman remained out front with a lead of just over two seconds on Larson. Logano was third, Johnson fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.

With 34 laps to go, Kyle Busch reported smoke in the cockpit of his No. 18 Toyota and he was forced to pit under green shortly thereafter.

With 20 laps left in the race, Bowman maintained a lead of just over 1.5 seconds over Larson while Logano remained in third.

Bowman’s lead over Larson dropped to under a second with 15 laps remaining.

Larson got to Bowman’s rear bumper with 10 laps remaining and began working on trying to pass him for the lead.

With eight laps remaining, Larson powered to the inside of Bowman entering Turn 1 and came out in Turn 2 with the lead. Three laps later, Bowman got back around Larson to reclaim the lead.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	267		88
2	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	267	0.546	7
3	22	Joey Logano	Ford	267	3.471
4	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	267	4.745	10
5	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	267	6.966
6	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	267	7.610	1
7	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	267	9.859	1
8	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	267	10.560	9
9	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	267	12.010
10	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	267	12.602	10
11	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	267	16.816
12	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	267	20.752	2
13	1	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	267	24.131
14	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	267	24.808	132
15	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	267	25.059	5
16	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	267	25.141
17	6	Ryan Newman	Ford	267	31.686	1
18	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	266	1 lap
19	8	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	266	1 lap
20	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	266	1 lap	1
21	21	Paul Menard	Ford	266	1 lap
22	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	266	1 lap
23	38	David Ragan	Ford	265	2 laps
24	41	Daniel Suarez	Ford	265	2 laps	1
25	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	264	3 laps
26	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	264	3 laps
27	95	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	264	3 laps
28	47	Ryan Preece	Chevrolet	264	3 laps
29	36	Matt Tifft	Ford	263	4 laps
30	32	Corey Lajoie	Ford	263	4 laps
31	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	260	7 laps
32	52	Bayley Currey	Chevrolet	258	9 laps
33	53	Josh Bilicki	Chevrolet	257	10 laps
34	27	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	249	18 laps
35	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	239	28 laps
36	51	B.J. McLeod	Ford	238	29 laps
37	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	172	95 laps
38	77	Quin Houff	Chevrolet	100	167 laps