Chase Elliott’s run in the NASCAR $1M In-Season Challenge is officially over. He lost his semifinal matchup to Todd Gilliland at North Wilkesboro. Furious fans quickly pointed fingers at Alex Bowman for triggering the crash and costing his HMS teammate the win. However, NASCAR insiders say one cannot solely blame Bowman.
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Why Bowman’s pit-road crash wasn’t entirely his fault
“Blake [Bowman’s crew chief] kind of tells him, seems like maybe the middle of one and two, and he’s like, ‘Pit now.’ I really didn’t hear Kevin [Bowman’s spotter] much on the audio, but it’s like he said, ‘Inside,’ and then they come together. In that moment, you probably have to be willing to just say, ‘No, we’re not coming.'”
Freddie Kraft broke down the incident on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. He explained that modern NASCAR pit strategy caused the problem, not just a driver error.
Kraft made a simple point. Teams constantly monitor each other’s radio traffic. Because of this, crew chiefs no longer call pit stops several laps in advance. Instead, they tell drivers to pit at the last possible second. At top speed, drivers have almost no time to react. According to Kraft, Bowman received a late pit call midway through Turns 1 and 2. Tyler Reddick already had his No. 45 Toyota tucked inside Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet.
In a matter of seconds, Bowman had to check his mirrors, slow down, and head down pit road.
Kraft believed the safest option for Hendrick Motorsports may have been to abort the stop entirely, even if it meant sacrificing track position. Joey Logano, who joined the discussion, agreed with that explanation.
“These days the crew chief’s not going to broadcast over the radio because everyone’s scanning. So, they’re not going to just say, ‘Hey, we’re going to pit in three laps.’ So, they tell you, and to your point, in the middle of one and two…And that’s why you have like a lot of these close calls.”
The Lap 183 crash ruined the race for multiple drivers. Bowman tangled with Reddick and brought out the caution during a green-flag pit cycle.
The yellow flag scrambled the running order. It trapped Elliott two laps down at the worst possible time. Meanwhile, Gilliland stayed on the lead lap. This ultimately decided their $1 million In-Season Challenge matchup as Gilliland finished eighth whereas Elliott finished way down in 17th. Reddick also suffered a significant blow in the regular-season championship battle after losing valuable points in the incident.
Fans accused Bowman of costing Elliott a chance at a million dollars. However, the radio audio shows how difficult modern pit calls really are. As Kraft and Logano clarified, a single driver’s error was not the only cause of the event. Rather, it brought attention to the extremely narrow margins that teams deal with every week, when a driver’s fate may be altered by split-second pit choices.