The Bristol Motor Speedway night race was a classic short-track slugfest, with chaotic cautions, shredded tires, and playoff hopes slipping through cracked concrete. While Christopher
Bell stole the win; others were left scrambling to salvage points.
Alex Bowman clawed to eighth but missed the playoffs, Josh Berry battled handling issues all night, and Austin Dillon muscled through the mess for a mid-pack finish. It wasn’t pretty, but it was peak Bristol: loud, brutal, and unforgettable.
Alex Bowman: A Gritty Effort That Fell Just Short
Bowman’s eighth-place run summed up his entire season: flashes of fight, just not quite enough. He came in needing a near-miracle to advance, and though his crew gave him a car that could hang, tire strategy wrecked his chances.
“I don’t think you can really point at something that cost us. Being out of tires at the end isn’t good, right, and honestly, we just played the hand that we could and stayed out,” Bowman explained after climbing out.
“But if I had to pick one thing, our cycled tire restarts were just really poor. I couldn’t go at all. Zero grip. Our restarts on stickers or even when we’d put our qualifying scuffs on and stuff, it was fine, but cycled tires were really bad.”
Still, he refused to throw in the towel. “Hats off to our whole 48 team. They did a good job throughout the course of the day, trying to be better after a rough last two weeks, and I think we swung it in the right direction, and we can continue to do that for the next seven weeks. We’ve just got to keep digging,” he said.
“Certainly sucks to not transfer, but our back was against the wall coming in here. We knew it was going to be a tough thing to do… We have some work to do on our race cars, but everybody is always working.”
Josh Berry: Grinding Through the Gremlins
Rookie nights at Bristol are never easy, and Berry’s was no exception. He spent much of the race wrestling a car that just wouldn’t turn the way he needed.
“We just missed it a little,” Berry admitted. “Our balance was off early, and we chased it the whole race. Once the track rubbered in, it kind of came to us, but by then we were buried.”
Despite that, Berry managed to hang in the fight and bring the car home clean. “It’s frustrating because I feel like we had more speed than the finish shows, but this place will humble you in a hurry. We’ll learn from it and keep pushing,” he said, sounding more determined than defeated.
Austin Dillon: Scrapping for Every Spot
For Dillon, Bristol was pure survival mode. The No. 3 car was caught in traffic most of the night, and he had to muscle for every position like it was the last lap.
“That was a battle,” Dillon said with a half-smile. “We just fought for everything we could get. The car wasn’t great on the long runs, but we made some gains and didn’t quit.”
He stayed out of the chaos, logged solid points, and kept his focus forward. “It’s not the finish we wanted, but it’s Bristol, you take what it gives you. Proud of our guys for hanging in there,” he added.
In the end, Bristol was as unforgiving as ever. Bowman left frustrated but proud, Berry walked away bruised but wiser, and Dillon quietly gutted out another hard-earned finish. No wins, no trophies, just the kind of gritty nights that keep the garage lights burning deep into the season.
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