Alex Bowman remained tight-lipped on his contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports. Bowman’s future hangs in the balance after a vertigo diagnosis sidelined him for four races this season.
Bowman retired with 20 laps left in the third race of the season at Circuit of The Americas. HMS scrambled to finish the race with Matt Snider in his stead.
The No.48 driver returned to commission at Bristol and finished dead last. He later spurred hope with two consecutive podium finishes at Texas and Talladega, but has since fallen to middling results.
In a media Zoom call on Tuesday, Bowman shared a reserved outlook on his 2027 plans.
“I’m just trying to, you know, do my part to try to help HMS be the best it can be right now and obviously trying to get things turned back around on the 48 side of things. But yeah, definitely not really like I don’t feel like I’m racing for my job or anything like that by any means,” he said via X/Toby Christie.
“We’ve had a lot of different conversations and kind of trying to figure out,” Bowman continued, “what the best thing to do is. So I would say sooner rather than later for sure. I guess I haven’t really thought about like it hasn’t been like the first thing on my mind by any means.”
Anthony Alfredo raced in place of Alex Bowman at Phoenix, while Justin Allgaier took over at Las Vegas, Martinsville, and Darlington. Bowman currently ranks 29th with 231 points to his name.
At this rate, Bowman stands a poor chance of making the 16-driver Chase cutoff. In his nine-year tenure with HMS, Bowman has missed the playoffs for only one season.
Alex Bowman offers an optimistic take on health concerns
Weeks after bouncing back from his vertigo diagnosis, Alex Bowman opted out of his O’Reilly race at Nashville. Kyle Larson filled in and nabbed a top-10 finish for JR Motorsports.
In an interview ahead of the Cup race that weekend, Bowman had this to say about his health concerns (via ESPN),
“I would say I’m as close to 100% as I’m going to get.”
The 33-year-old recalled the initial moments when he dropped out of COTA, saying,
“I was dizzy in the car and throwing up on myself in the car, spinning and kind of all that stuff.”
Alex Bowman is no stranger to injuries. The Tucson, Arizona, native sat out five races in 2022 after a concussion. He then suffered a back injury in 2023 that required surgery.
The setback ruled him out for three races that season. His last win came from the 2024 Chicago Street Race. Notably, Bowman had his 300th Cup Series start the same year.
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