Bowman admits he "choked that one away" in tough Homestead loss

Alex Bowman started Sunday's race from pole position and was looking to follow the example set by Tyler Reddick last year as the latest driver to win this race from the front of the grid. Bowman led 43 laps and was collecting stage points throughout the day.

On the final restart with just over 50 laps remaining, Bowman was in fourth but quickly made it three-wide for the race lead. While Bubba Wallace escaped and drove away, he was able to run him back down within 20 laps and power into the race lead. Unfortunately for him, his teammate Kyle Larson was making an extremely high line work, running right up against the outside wall.

Bowman tried to counter as his lead evaporated, but it didn't work, as the wall grabbed him, slowing him down at the exit of Turn 4, coming to six to go. That made Larson's job easy as he drove on by and never looked back.

"I guess I choked that one away," lamented Bowman after the race. "Saw the 5 [Larson] coming, so moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it hard with the right front and ended up just bending something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there, and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad.

"So I hate that for this Ally 48 group. They deserve better than that. Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were okay all day. That last run was the best we were ... Hate it for Mr. Hendrick. Congrats to Kyle. We're going to try get another one this week."

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Chris Graythen - Getty Images

Sunday's runner-up result was Bowman's best result since winning at the Chicago Street Course last summer and his first top-five finish ever at Homestead. He leaves this race third in the championship standings, trailing his Hendrick teammates Larson and William Byron, who sits atop the points pile.