Bowman wants another chance to close out NASCAR career in style
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Bowman considered walking away from NASCAR after this season. A series of discouraging results convinced him to give racing one more shot.
One day after the 33-year-old Arizona native announced he’ll retire after the 2027 season, Bowman arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first Brickyard 400 practice and explained why he decided to embark on one final farewell tour with Hendrick Motorsports.
“I think I really want to end on a more positive note than kind of how this year’s been,” he said Friday. “I’ve had my fair share (of concussions), but this really isn’t a physical thing. I think if I would have had no injuries over the last 10 years, this time frame would still be this time frame. This is kind what I wanted.”
Bowman has spent the past 10 years driving for one of NASCAR’s top teams, first in the No. 88 car before switching to the No. 48. He enters this weekend with eight career wins, 114 top 10 finishes and seven pole wins in 371 career Cup starts.
In recent years, though, he battled health issues.
Bowman missed four races this season because of vertigo and, in addition to the concussions, also suffered a back injury in a 2023 sprint car race. He then re-injured his back in a big crash at Michigan in 2025.
Somehow, though, Bowman managed to make seven playoff appearances in the previous eight seasons. This year, he’s 29th in points — well below the 16-driver postseason cutline.
“It has been a journey for sure, and it hasn’t gone the way I had hoped, I guess, in some ways,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun even though the stat sheet might read what I want it to read. It’s still been great in a lot of ways.”
Bowman’s impending departure means Hendrick will have a rare full-time opening in 2028. But finding a successor for Bowman’s seat was not a priority on Friday’s agenda.
Instead, teammates and team officials offered their support to Bowman about his decision and the 53 races remaining on his schedule.
“I really enjoyed my time with him,” two-time Cup champ Kyle Larson said. “He made us all better. I really enjoyed having him around, the debriefs and all that, even tried to make it something bigger that we all enjoyed. And he can drive the heck out of a race car. So he brings a lot to the race team, and I’m happy that he’s able to do it on his own terms.”
Bowman wasn’t the only driver talking about his future plans.
JR Motorsports announced last week that 40-year-old Justin Allgaier, the O’Reilly Series points leader, will return for 2027 and beyond. The announcement ended speculation about Allgaier retiring this year as he chases his second series title in three years.
“I had a pretty good thought that (retirement) was the direction we were going to go and there’s still some things that we have to work through to finalize all that before it’s official,” Allgaier said. “For me, it was entrusting some of the groups around me, the conversation with my wife, probably most importantly my kids, just trying to discuss what that looked like and even then the partners, right? It was making sure we were able to put funding together to be able to race.”
Bowman also has plans outside of racing.
He announced on Instagram in December that he and longtime girlfriend Chloe Henderson had gotten engaged, and though he’s not considering a broadcasting career at the moment, he didn’t rule it out in the future as he chases other aspirations.
“I think for me, much more of it is things I want to do outside the race car, other goals I have in life and stuff I want to do,” Bowman said. “If it was straight up like I can’t do this anymore, it probably would have been this year. But I do feel like I can continue to (race) at a high level.”