“Every time I race the 99, he does something dumb”: Alex Bowman responds to his collision with Daniel Suarez at Darlington

The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway witnessed a clash between rivals Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez. The two Chevy drivers are once again in the spotlight as they took the fight off the track calling each other's move 'dumb'.

Bowman and Suarez were involved in a collision at COTA earlier in the season and once again tangled with each other in the playoff opener at Darlington.

A late move by Alex Bowman wrecked both of them out of the race, with the drivers firing shots at one another post-race. Suarez called out Bowman's "dumb" block, which the #48 driver countered by saying via NBC:

"Obviously, it didn’t work out. He chose not to lift and to crash us. Every time I race the 99 (Suarez), he does something dumb, whether it’s his crew chief flipping me off on the way to the airport or any time I’m around him, he blocks me really aggressively."

The incident occurred when the two drivers were fighting for position with 49 laps left for the Southern 500. Daniel Suarez tried to make a move on the inside which was blocked by Alex Bowman. The #99 driver then moved to the top lane, which was once again blocked by the #48 driver.

The late move by Bowman caused a collision with his #48 Chevy hitting the wall, while the #99 Chevy was sent spinning and collected Harrison Burton. The three drivers had to retire from the race.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver accepted that the block was unnecessary as he explained:

"Obviously, the block didn't work out and looking back, I shouldn't have done it. We were just really tight on the short run and I knew I needed to hang on to whatever track position I could. Kind of just got a bad run of off (Turn 4) being tight...If I could hold on for a couple of laps then we'd be really good"

"But he wants to call me dumb, every time I'm around him there's a big block so that's just part of racing sometimes," he concluded.

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What did Daniel Suarez say about Alex Bowman?

The #99 Trackhouse Racing driver was angry about Alex Bowman's double block as he called out his fellow Chevy driver for the dumb move.

Exiting the infield care center, Daniel Suarez voiced his frustration about the late-race incident as he said:

“We’re both Chevy partners, so I didn’t want to do that to him. But then I went high and he blocked me again. You can block once, but you can’t block twice like that. We’ve been racing here three and a half hours and to wreck with 40 laps to go, it’s a little bit dumb. Just have to be smart.”

Daniel Suarez and Alex Bowman were on track for top 10 finishes but returned home finishing outside the top 30.