Alex Bowman Trolls Kyle Busch a Year After Rowdy Blasted Him for His Win at Las Vegas
Alex Bowman heads into the third race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season at Las Vegas with confidence, and justifiably so. He’s scored a pair of top-10 finishes in the first two races this year and is going to a track where he recorded his lone win in 2022.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver’s win last year in Sin City didn’t come without some controversy, but it wasn’t by the driver’s own doing. It was the result of Kyle Busch’s explosive comments after the race when the two-time champion went off on an expletive-laden tirade, suggesting the HMS driver had “backed into the win.”
This week, the driver of the No. 48 couldn’t help himself and revisited that fiery moment on social media with a classic troll of the Richard Childress Racing driver.
Alex Bowman blasted by Kyle Busch after winning Las Vegas
Alex Bowman didn’t appear destined for victory in last year’s first race at Las Vegas. Kyle Busch did. After crashing early in the weekend practice session, the native Las Vegan took his backup car, drove it to the front late in the race, and dominated, leading 40 of the final 45 laps. Then, a caution came out when Erik Jones hit the wall with three laps to go.
On the critical final pit stop before the green-white-checkered overtime restart, Bowman and two of his HMS teammates – Kyle Larson and William Byron – took two tires. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver took four. That was the difference in the race.
The No. 18 started behind Bowman but was never able to overtake the No. 48. Instead, he watched helplessly as the younger driver beat out Larson for the win. Moments after the HMS car took the checkered flag, the JGR driver exploded over the team radio.
“The same f****** guy who backs into every f****** win that he ever f****** gets backs into another f****** win,” Busch said. “Bulls***! F***!”
Bowman trolls Busch before this year’s Las Vegas race
Several days later Bowman acknowledged during an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he had spoken with Busch about the incident.
“I talked to Kyle Monday night. He was just mad to have lost the race,” Bowman said of the conversation. “Like he wasn’t mad at me. I didn’t do anything to him. Kyle and I have always raced each other with respect. He was just mad that he lost the race. I was the one on the other end of the rant.”
That was then. This is now.
This week and just a couple of days before the first race in Las Vegas, the 29-year-old driver couldn’t help himself when he took to social media and had a little fun revisiting last year’s win and the reaction of Busch.
“All luck, no skill,” he tweeted, with a dice emoji. “Ready for a repeat this weekend in Vegas.”
Takes a certain approach when using social media
Bowman is your prototypical HMS driver. He likes to let his on-track action do the talking and steer clear of controversy. That’s not to say he doesn’t like to have a little fun on social media, as he did this week with Busch.
He recently admitted that he’s not a fan of social media, but when using it, tries to take a certain approach that shows his sense of humor and connects with fans.
“Definitely dry and sarcastic,” he said of his style. “Try to have a good time with it. Social media is not my favorite so if I’m going to do it I try to have fun with it.”
Mission accomplished.
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