Ryan Blaney’s two-lap victory run was exactly the result that Alex Bowman needed to make the playoffs. Needless to say, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was thankful.After wrecking out in a multi-car pileup right during the final stage of Saturday’s (August 23) race at Daytona, Bowman had lost all hope of qualifying for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. But luck favored him at last, as his playoff spot was earned solely based on points.While speaking with Bob Pockrass of FOX, Bowman joked that he owed Ryan Blaney several cans of beer, 7 million to be exact.“I am certainly thankful for him...Ryan's a good dude,” he continued. “Happy to see him win, he's had a ton of huge hits here. I don't know what to say other than that. Just thankful that he won.” (0:07 onwards)Bowman started the race on Row 1, alongside Ryan Blaney, the polesitter. Qualifying for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was cancelled due to inclement weather, so the starting grid was set by metrics. Bowman was trying to enter the top 10 right before he crashed.He never expected the drivers at the bottom of the track to get loose like they did. But when they did, Bowman had nowhere to go.“We just couldn't get going. When they crashed in front of us, yeah, there wasn't anything we could have done differently to get through that, I don't think,” Bowman said in a statement.As things stand, Alex Bowman will start his engine next week at Darlington as a playoff driver. The iconic racetrack will host the first race of the playoffs, named the Cook Out Southern 500.Alex Bowman recalls the Lap 27 wreck at DaytonaStarting in P2 was exactly the head start that Alex Bowman needed to win the race at Daytona. But things went southward on Lap 27. Bowman didn’t know what else he could have done to avoid the 12 cars that wrecked in front of him.Recalling the situation, the Chevy star said,"Being in front of it is really about all I could do, unfortunately. 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. I hate it for the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team.”It was indeed stressful to watch the race from the infield care center. Alex Bowman was hoping for no new winners, but knew that if somebody won, they would deserve the playoff spot.“We've done a lot of good things lately. It's unfortunate that we haven't won yet this year. We've been so strong, especially lately. I would say from Michigan on, it's been something fun to be a part of,” he added.For now, all eyes are on Darlington Raceway for the opening race of the playoffs on Sunday, August 31. The 367-lap event will be televised on USA (6 pm ET) with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.