Kyle Larson, driving for Rick Hendrick, not only took the checkered flag in the inaugural race of the playoff season but also etched his name in the annals of history with his maiden victory on that track. In fact, Larson stood shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick, dominating a lion’s share of the laps. While Larson’s triumph had fans singing Hendrick Motorsports’ praises for conquering one of the racing marathons, not all was rosy in the HMS garden.

Alex Bowman, an HMS driver, seemed to stir the pot after the Darlington race insinuating that the current crew chief of Daniel Suarez, who was also a former HMS colleague, had given him the short end of the stick.

Alex Bowman calls our Daniel Suarez and his teammate after the Darlington race

At lap 319, Bowman and Daniel Suarez were caught in a game of cat and mouse. Bowman tried blocking Suarez out, but as they say, what goes around comes around. Suarez repaid the favor with gusto, which unfortunately led to both cars touching the wall and involving Harrison Burton to the feud.

The dust-up promptly put the brakes on both Bowman’s and Suarez’s races. While Suarez didn’t mince words, Bowman was quick to pull skeletons out, recounting past instances of aggressive blocking by Suarez.

He even put Suarez’s crew chief, Travis Mack, under the spotlight. Mack, having cut his teeth with Rick Hendrick’s team, Hendrick Motorsports, later shifted gears to JR Motorsports in 2013. Bowman remarked, “He (Daniel Suarez) chose not to lift and to crash us. But every time I raise the #99, he does something dumb. Whether it’s his crew chief flipping me off on the way to the airport or anytime I am around him, he blocks me really aggressively. So, that’s just part of it.”

Mack didn’t take this lying down, and he quickly took to Twitter. “I’d like to know when I flipped him off. Ha. Guess he can see into the future. OTW to the ✈️ 🤷someone check him for a concussion,” he quipped. The social media buzz around this was akin to a pot of mixed stew; fans weren’t firmly in either camp, and reactions were all over the map.

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Typically, NASCAR loyalists plant their flag firmly with their favored racer and stand their ground. However, when it came to the recent tiff between Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez’s crew chief, the waters seemed muddied, and fans were on the fence.

While a chunk of the crowd tipped their hats to Mack’s witty concussion jest, others threw shade at Bowman, questioning if his memory took a pit stop. A zinger amongst the comments read, “Nice. Love a good concussion joke. Must be 1999 or something.”

“Ha! I knew it! When he said that in his interview, I was like, no way Travis Mack did that. Such a weird and random comment for him to make. “

“Travis you’re the [Goat Emoji] I can’t stop laughing at your tweet. [Laughing emoji] bowman doesn’t even know what he was talking about, he’s such a quack. You & the 99 team did amazing today until the crash. Hopefully next week will be better”

However, other fans didn’t pull any punches, taking Mack to task for his concussion wisecrack, branding it in poor taste.

“Ahh, concussion jokes. *slow clap*”

“And this, this right here is why nobody likes Trackhouse. Never seen such little class from a race team in my life.”

“hard to believe your side of the story when you end it like that”

So, where do you stand on Travis Mack’s comment? Did he cross a line, or was it just a harmless tease? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.

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