By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – The countdown for the Alex Bowman Retirement Tour is on.
On Thursday, Bowman and Hendrick Motorsports announced that the 2027 season would be his last in full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition as he will be stepping out of the cockpit of the No. 48 Chevrolet when the checkered flag waves next November.
As for why the end of the next season will mark the end of the road for the 33-year-old, Bowman explained that the timing was right for him to be able to step away and for Hendrick to be able to have ample time to find a suitable replacement.
“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what’s next, and this feels like the right decision at the right time,” Bowman said.
“The sport asks a lot of you, and I’ve learned it’s important to listen to your body and make the right choices for yourself. To say I’m incredibly grateful to Mr. Hendrick, our partners at Ally and Chevrolet, and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports would be an understatement. They believed in me and gave me the biggest opportunity of my life.
“My focus now is on making the most of my time on the racetrack and competing for wins. We still have a lot to accomplish, and I want to close my career on a high note for our team and our fans. To have the chance to do that with this organization and these people is really special.”
Bowman came into the sport as a journeyman driver, taking jobs with some of the smaller teams in the garage, but his big break came in 2016 when he was tabbed to serve as the substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at HMS when Earnhardt was on the sidelines dealing with concussions.
He would serve as the primary simulator driver for the team in 2017, which led to Bowman getting that seat full-time in 2018 following Earnhardt’s retirement.
Since taking over that ride, Bowman has gone on to score eight Cup Series wins, with a breakout four-win season in 2021 and his last win coming at the Chicago street race in 2024. He has also finished in the top-10 in points on three different occasions during his stint with HMS, scoring a career-best sixth place points finish in 2020.
“It has been a journey, for sure,” Bowman said. “It hasn’t gone exactly how I would have hoped, I guess, in some ways. But at the same time, I’ve learned so much. I’ve grown so much as a person. I’ve got to be teammates with some incredible people; learn from some awesome people and be a part of an amazing organization. It’s been a lot of fun.
“Even though the stat sheet might not read what I want it to read, it’s still been great in a lot of ways. In 2016, before I filled in, I was broke; selling my seats to pay rent and barely getting by. To end up at Hendrick Motorsports for a decade, it’s been incredible. It’s been a lot of fun, and it means a lot to have the support of everybody at HMS.”
But while Bowman has found success on track during his tenure with Hendrick Motorsports, he has also run into bad luck with injuries along the way as well.
In 2022, Bowman was sidelined with concussion-like symptoms following a crash at Texas Motor Speedway, which kept him out of the car for five races until the season finale that season.
The following year, a sprint car crash led to a broken vertebrae in his back that forced him to miss three races – an injury that has somewhat lingered since then and was reaggravated following a crash at Michigan last season.
Most recently, he battled vertigo for a number of weeks after symptoms struck during the Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas and was able to return to the cockpit at Bristol in mid-April.
During his time out of the car while he battled vertigo, Bowman explained that he was ready to hang it up right then and there, but noted following Thursday’s announcement that he was happy to be able to wrap up his career on his own terms next season.
“I think for me, it’s always been in this time frame. I would say like kind of this three-year block. Whether it was 2026, ‘27 or ‘28, that’s something we’ve talked about for a really long time and what I’ve always had circled,” Bowman said of his internal timeframe for when he wanted to step away.
“I think with what went on in March, I feel like in my head, I had looked at this year being it quite a bit. But yeah, just trying to make the best decision for me and obviously the best decision for Hendrick Motorsports. I think I really want to end on a more positive note than kind of how this year has been, so that gave me a little more motivation to come back and go one more year. I think it is better for me, personally. It’s better for Hendrick Motorsports.
“It’s been a lot of fun. Obviously, it’s been a dream come true to get to drive for HMS and work with everybody there. We’re doing our best to end this year strong and have a really strong year next year.”
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