Alex Bowman's fate is now out of his hands after early…

Entering Daytona, Tyler Reddick was 29 points above Alex Bowman, who currently holds the 16th and final spot in the playoffs. With 20 drivers who could potentially win their way into the playoffs and knock out that 16th driver on Saturday night, no one wants to be on the bubble.

Despite starting on the front row, Bowman fell back through the pack, severely hindering his efforts to score stage points and bridge the gap to Reddick.

After 18 laps, Bowman got handed a gift when Reddick made an unforced error. Running just outside the top ten, Reddick pushed up while three-wide in the middle of the pack. He made contact with Todd Gilliland and the two cars went spinning.

Reddick's car slammed the inside wall, causing significant damage to the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing Toyota (Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)

Bowman out of the race

There's more trouble!

This time, it's at the front of the pack! pic.twitter.com/1pU8aUCfqv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 24, 2025

However, the good fortune for Bowman did not last. After just 27 laps, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch came together in a tri-oval squeeze. A multi-car wreck broke out, collecting Bowman.

Along with the mentioned drivers, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson, Denny Hamlin, Austin Hill, Riley Herbst, and Zane Smith also sustained notable damage in the chaos.

The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was among those who suffered significant damage -- even more than Reddick's earlier incident. He was unable to drive the car back to the pits and was taken back to the garage. As the driver who had to gain ground on Reddick, this wreck essentially sealed his fate. He is officially out of the race.

Reddick is now locked into the postseason, while Bowman will have to watch the rest of the race and pray that one of those 20 drivers facing a must-win situation doesn't capture the checkered flag, or the Hendrick Motorsports driver will be eliminated from the playoffs.

“Being in front of it is really about all I could do, unfortunately," said Bowman. "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. We’ve done a lot of good things lately. Tonight is going to be stressful to watch, but we’ll see what happens. Hope for no new winners, but if somebody wins, they deserve it. 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.

"It was all very out of our control. I hate that we tanked so bad the first run. The bottom lane just fell apart behind us. We had to overcome that, but we had gotten back to the back side of the top-10. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.”

UPDATE: Ryan Blaney went on to capture the checkered flag in a photo finish, and as a repeat winner, it saved Bowman from almost certain elimination.