KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Alex Bowman should have earned his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory. But experience challenging for wins makes a difference, and Bowman can either look at his second-place finish Saturday night as being the first loser or as a lesson that sometimes in sports, the adage of having to lose one (or more) before winning applies.

A Bowman mistake opened the door for Brad Keselowski to get by and lead the final 11 laps of the Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway , ruining what would have been a career day for Bowman and a possible bench mark moment for Chevrolet amid 15 months of frustration.

The 25-year-old couldn’t hide his disappointment after a failed attempt while leading where he chose to run the middle lane, which upset the handling of Bowman’s car and forced him to lift off the throttle.

“I’m pretty dang frustrated with myself,” said Bowman, who has 129 Cup Series starts. “There’s no way around that. That was a bad mistake.”