DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Big One unfolded early at Daytona International Speedway, collecting Alex Bowman and putting his playoff hopes in peril.
He could only watch and hope that a repeat winner captured the checkered flag on Saturday night.
"What can you do?" Bowman asked after exiting the infield care center. "It's a stressful time to be a part of, but I don't think this really defines us as a race team.
"It's pretty outside of our control, and we've done a lot of good things lately."
The incident occurred on Lap 27 of Saturday night's regular-season finale. Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch came together near the front of the pack, which kicked off the massive crash. Several cars crashed into the infield while Bowman went up the track into another car.
This contact spun Bowman into the outside wall, which significantly damaged the right side of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. The car then spun down toward the apron, where it sustained more damage while hitting Zane Smith's No. 38 Ford.
There's more trouble!
This time, it's at the front of the pack! pic.twitter.com/1pU8aUCfqv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 24, 2025
The tow truck took the No. 48 back to the garage area, where crew members from three different Hendrick teams frantically attempted to make repairs. However, the damage made it impossible. Bowman could not continue in the race.
"Being in front of it is really about all I could do, unfortunately," Bowman said about the crash.
"From where we were, there just really wasn't any way to get around it. All of the hits just sort of compounded too much to be able to fix it."
Bowman entered the night as the final driver above the playoff cutline on points. The only other driver he could overtake was Tyler Reddick, who had crashed earlier in the race after Todd Gilliland spun into him. Reddick continued in the race with a damaged No. 45 Toyota.
With Bowman failing to continue, Reddick clinched his spot in the playoffs. This left only one spot for either a new winner or Bowman, who no longer controlled his own destiny.
He faced the possibility of missing the playoffs despite posting seven top-10 finishes and four top-fives in the past 10 races. He had the consistency to accumulate points, but he didn't have the win to lock himself into the playoffs before the trip to Daytona.
"I mean, I hate it for everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, they work really hard," Bowman said. "The last 10 or 11 weeks has been really fun to be a part of. We've been really strong, and that's been cool.
"I don't want to let the result of tonight turn into, you know, falling apart the rest of the year. We got to keep it together, whether we're in the playoffs or not. And we're a race team plenty capable of going and winning anywhere."