Alex Bowman details ‘heartbreaking’ and controversial Daytona 500 loss

No one had a harder end to the Daytona 500 than Alex Bowman who came up short by just a matter of inches to finish runner-up. Instead, his NASCAR teammate William Byron edged the nose of his car just ahead for the win.

With a couple of days to think about the race, Alex Bowman gave his side of things on the Dale Jr. Download Reloaded podcast. Finishing P2 at Daytona is probably the toughest loss in professional sports.

Still, Bowman seems to have moved on relatively quickly. After all, he has a race in Atlanta this weekend that will include more drafting and an even narrower track. Even if he’s moved on, it doesn’t help make the loss in Daytona any better.

“I knew I was in front of him [William Byron] when the yellow light on the track came on, but I don’t think that’s what they go by, right?” Bowman said on the podcast. “They go by the yellow light in the tower or whatever. To be honest, I felt like they waited a long time to throw the yellow light, and I think that’s the reason I wasn’t more bummed about it than I was. To lose the Daytona 500 by six-thousandths of a second or whatever it was is definitely heartbreaking but they could have thrown the caution a bit earlier and made that margin bigger.

“So, that’s just part of racing, all you can do is move on to the next one and try to win the next one. It was a good day for us, got good stage points and a good finish, but yeah, heartbreaking for sure.”

Even if Alex Bowman is over it, there are NASCAR fans online who aren’t going to give it up.

Alex Bowman ‘happy’ for William Byron

No matter what you think about NASCAR’s decision, who won, the “rightful” Daytona 500 champion – Alex Bowman knows he isn’t that driver. It’s William Byron. Nothing is going to change that, and NASCAR has already released their evidence showing Byron winning.

When asked on DJD Reloaded, Bowman joked a little bit, but he understands that just how racing is sometimes. You win some, you lose some.

“I don’t have a trophy, I don’t get the same check that William’s going to get, I didn’t go to New York. So, I think he’s the 500 winner,” Bowman said. “It was close, obviously, I don’t have access to everything NASCAR has. I’m just happy for William. That’s an interesting situation where I think teams would have dug into it more if it wasn’t two teammates, but at the same time I think NASCAR would have made the same call.”

If that had been Joey Logano and William Byron, we probably would have had more of a debate over what happened. Then again, is there any reason to make Byron the winner over Bowman? Let’s say NASCAR had a grand conspiracy, is it better for the sport if Jeff Gordon’s old car gets the win at Daytona or Jimmie Johnson’s former ride?

For a professional sports league to set up a conspiracy like this, it would need to make sense. Where is the motive? What is the greater outcome for NASCAR in having Byron be the representative of the sport over Bowman?

Both Alex Bowman and William Byron put on a great show. It will be fun to see them race throughout the season and see which of them can come out on top.