Alex Bowman will be back in the No. 48 car this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, returning earlier than expected after missing four full NASCAR Cup Series races while recovering from vertigo. The 32-year-old was medically cleared after a week of on-track and simulator work that ended with a medical evaluation on Wednesday.
Bowman’s trouble began March 1 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, when he started the 324-mile event and then said he was not feeling well near the two-thirds mark. He left the race, and a backup driver finished it for the team. Anthony Alfredo replaced him at Phoenix, while Justin Allgaier filled in at Las Vegas, Darlington and Martinsville and had been set to drive again at Bristol before Bowman was cleared.
Hendrick Motorsports said Bowman completed laps in a street car at a road course in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday, then took part in pit stop practice and simulator testing on Wednesday before the medical check that opened the door for his return. Team president Jeff Andrews said the organization was proud of Bowman and the way he handled the situation, adding that he put a lot of work into his recovery and followed the medical team’s plan every step of the way. Andrews said the team’s goal from the start was to protect Bowman’s health and bring him back only when he was fully recovered and medically cleared.
The timing matters because the regular season is still young enough for Bowman to salvage his playoff position, but not by much. He returns 36th in the standings, 144 points behind 16th-ranked Daniel Suárez, with 19 regular-season races left before NASCAR’s Chase playoff begins. Drivers must be 16th or better after the 26-race regular season to qualify, and Bowman has made the postseason in seven of the past eight seasons.
That leaves the No. 48 team with a narrow, straightforward task: get Bowman back up to speed fast and keep the points deficit from becoming too steep. He missed the playoffs in 2023 after injuring his back and sitting out three regular-season races, so this return is less a reset than a race against the calendar.
