When Alex Bowman passed Denny Hamlin with over 150 laps to go, he completed what was all four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets running at the front of the field.
The team didn’t look back, and Bowman put the 48 car back into victory lane in front of Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and William Byron.
“This is the sign of the guys working together and bringing good stuff to the track,” Rick Hendrick said on the Fox Sports 1 broadcast. “I don’t think it’ll hit me maybe until tomorrow that we went 1-2-3-4. That’s pretty hard to do.”
The team’s cars were the class of the field throughout the day, leading all but 18 laps of the 400 lap race.
Byron kicked it off early on by taking the lead from Martin Truex Jr., but due to brake issues, he fell back a bit and gave up the lead to Larson.
Eventually, the cars came down pit road and Bowman’s crew was able to put together the faster pit stop, getting out to the lead over Larson and holding him off to get his fourth career series victory.
For Bowman, Hendrick says a contract extension is in the works and that the pilot of the 48 signing it is just a formality.
As for the other three, Larson is basically locked into the playoffs and picked up another podium finish Sunday. Elliott is still looking for his first win, but as NASCAR visits a new road course next week for the series, look for him to be the heavy favorite.
Byron’s fourth-place finish extends his now 11-race top 10 streak that goes all the way back to his win at Homestead in the third race of the season.
Although, it wasn’t just a good day for the HMS Chevy’s.
Richard Childress Racing and Trackhouse both showed speed throughout the day with each of their drivers knotting top 15 finishes.
Bubba Wallace came home 11th in his best finish of the season so far, as he and the 23XI team try to get their feet under them.
The race also marks the halfway point of the 2021 regular season, as the number of winners stayed at 10 for a second straight week.
Tyler Reddick’s eighth-place run puts him into the sixth and final wild card playoff position, with three top drivers still without a win this season.
Like mentioned previously, though, the series is headed to a road course for the second time this season on Sunday – one that the series has never ran on in the history of the sport.
It’s NASCAR at the Circuit of the Americas and it kicks off on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.
NASCAR Dover Results
1. Alex Bowman
2. Kyle Larson
3. Chase Elliott
4. William Byron
5. Joey Logano
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Denny Hamlin
8. Tyler Reddick
9. Daniel Suarez
10. Cole Custer
11. Bubba Wallace
12. Ryan Blaney
13. Kurt Busch
14. Austin Dillon
15. Ross Chastain
16. Brad Keselowski
17. Chris Buescher
18. Ryan Preece
19. Martin Truex Jr
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
21. Christopher Bell
22. Erik Jones
23. Ryan Newman
24. Matt DiBenedetto
25. Michael McDowell
26. Corey LaJoie
27. Kyle Busch
28. Anthony Alfredo
29. Quin Houff
30. Josh Berry
31. Cody Ware
32. Garrett Smithley
33. James Davison
34. Josh Bilicki
35. Chase Briscoe
36. BJ McLeod
37. Aric Almirola
| 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid | ||||||
| After 13 of 26 Regular Season Races – Next Race Sunday @ COTA | ||||||
| Position | Driver | Wins | Points | Cutoff | PP | |
| 1 | Martin Truex Jr. | 3 | x | x | 18 | |
| 2 | Alex Bowman | 2 | x | x | 10 | |
| 3 | William Byron | 1 | 472 | x | 6 | |
| 4 | Joey Logano | 1 | 442 | x | 7 | |
| 5 | Kyle Larson | 1 | 440 | x | 11 | |
| 6 | Ryan Blaney | 1 | 438 | x | 8 | |
| 7 | Brad Keselowski | 1 | 404 | x | 6 | |
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 1 | 383 | x | 6 | |
| 9 | Christopher Bell | 1 | 336 | x | 5 | |
| 10 | Michael McDowell | 1 | 290 | x | 5 | |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin | 574 | +293 | 5 | ||
| 12 | Chase Elliott | 432 | +151 | 0 | ||
| 13 | Kevin Harvick | 427 | +146 | 1 | ||
| 14 | Austin Dillon | 341 | +60 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Chris Buescher | 309 | +28 | 1 | ||
| 16 | Tyler Reddick | 298 | +17 | 1 | ||
| Playoff Cutoff | ||||||
| 17 | Matt DiBenedetto | 281 | -17 | 0 | ||
| 18 | Kurt Busch | 268 | -30 | 0 | ||
| 19 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 266 | -32 | 0 | ||
| 20 | Ryan Newman | 260 | -38 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Bubba Wallace | 249 | -49 | 1 | ||
| 22 | Daniel Suarez | 242 | -56 | 0 | ||
| 23 | Ross Chastain | 240 | -58 | 0 | ||
| 24 | Ryan Preece ® | 228 | -70 | 0 | ||
| 25 | Cole Custer | 219 | -79 | 0 | ||
| 26 | Erik Jones | 203 | -95 | 0 | ||
| 27 | Chase Briscoe ® | 200 | -98 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Aric Almirola | 169 | -129 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Anthony Alfredo ® | 134 | -164 | 0 | ||
| 30 | Corey LaJoie | 127 | -171 | 0 | ||
