Fewer people are walking around the NASCAR Cup Series garage with more pressure to perform than Alex Bowman.
The 2026 season is a contract year for the Hendrick Motorsports veteran, and it just happens to be in the storm that many expect this year’s silly season to be.
Yet just three races into the season, Bowman is sitting in unfamiliar territory, a bottom-feeder in the standings as the 36th and last-place driver among chartered teams. Of course, that is a result of back-to-back superspeedway crashes and a 36th-place result at Circuit of the Americas in which Bowman had to be relieved due to illness. The point is, a sizable rebound at this weekend’s race at Phoenix Raceway was what Bowman needed the doctor to prescribe.
Instead, the diagnosis won’t bring that yearning to fruition.
Hendrick announced on March 5 that Bowman has been diagnosed with vertigo, which caused his early retirement from COTA. After going through several tests both on and off the track, it was determined that Bowman will have to sit out Phoenix, with Anthony Alfredo assuming driving duties of his No. 48 Chevrolet.
The start of the new season for Bowman has been like a deflating balloon, a slow leak dispelling air only for the slightest puncture to transition into a wide slash.
Sitting out a race is costly from a points perspective, but from a bird’s-eye view, the ramifications branch out even further considering Bowman’s contract. It would also be one thing if this was Bowman’s first interruption in a season — yet it’s not.
When we turn back the clock a few years, we find Bowman seemingly on the brink of turning into a superstar, perhaps carrying as much potential as his HMS cohorts.
After switching numbers from the No. 88 to No. 48 in 2021, Bowman erupted for four wins that season, the second-most on an HMS roster that features (as it still does) Kyle Larson, William Byron and Chase Elliott.
However, while Larson went on to win the title and Elliott made the Championship 4 that year, inconsistency followed Bowman throughout the season, preventing him from competing for the title.
The inception of the Next Gen car and the parity it created heightened Bowman’s chances of realizing his potential, but inconsistency still stuck with him throughout 2022.
Then the first hiccup came.
While competing in the Round of 12 of the Cup playoffs at Texas Motor Speedway, Bowman spun in turns 3 and 4, backing his car into the outside wall. The crash didn’t appear vicious, but as too many drivers discovered that season, the energy-reducing feature of the car’s stiff frame transferred the impact into the driver’s body, resulting in Bowman sustaining a concussion that cost him five races.
In 2023, Bowman came back looking reinvigorated, leading the points after six races, with five top 10s.
But just as things were looking up, it quickly spiraled downward for Bowman. A few weeks after taking the points lead, Bowman broke his back in a sprint-car crash that sidelined him for three weeks. This time, Bowman never found his stride in his return, going winless and missing the playoffs that season.
That brings us to now, and despite a win at the 2024 Chicago street course and a strong playoff run that was foiled by a disqualification, Bowman has never returned to his previous form. Whether he’s still battling discomfort from the injuries, lacking confidence, or receiving the fourth-car treatment that has plagued HMS at times, his career has become an enigma.
His career is eerily comparable to that of Ricky Craven, a former HMS driver who never reached his full potential due to injuries.
After four wins in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and a 10-win 1991 season in the ARCA Menards Series East, Craven embarked on his first full-time campaign in 1995 with Larry Hedrick Motorsports, a team that was still up-and-coming.
While not delivering eye-catching statistics, Craven scored three top fives and nine top 10s with the team over the next two seasons. However, embedded in that stint was a horrific crash at Talladega Superspeedway that saw Craven become a victim of the Big One.
Craven’s car got clipped entering turns 1 and 2, proceeding to barrel roll up the track, launch into the catchfence and then land back in the middle of traffic.
The accident left Craven with fractured vertebrae, a concussion, bruised lungs and several cuts and bruises across his body. Despite the scene, Craven miraculously survived a crash that looked like a death trap the instant it happened. Incredibly, Craven didn’t miss a race, though the effects of the incident certainly lingered with him. After recording four top 10s and sitting fourth in points entering that Talladega race, Craven only landed in the top 10 once the rest of the year, falling to 20th in points.
Even with the struggles to conclude the 1996 season, the flashes of brilliance he did show at Hedrick were enough to catch the eye of a fellow owner with a similar last name, yet much different results at the Cup level: Rick Hendrick.
Craven was trapped to pilot HMS’ No. 25 for the 1997 season. A trio of solid races to open the year were followed by back-to-back DNFs, but plenty of promise had been highlighted by the team.
That is, until Craven’s struggles with injuries reared their ugly heads again.
While practicing at Texas Motor Speedway, Craven crashed hard in turn 4, fracturing a shoulder blade and handing him a severe concussion.
Initially, Craven thought he was back to normal, though he did miss two races as a result of the crash. However, he soon learned that this brush with tragedy wasn’t letting up, as Craven battled blurred vision, balance issues and several additional post-concussion symptoms.
Ultimately, those symptoms cost him more time than either of the previous two injuries. Craven missed 12 races in 1998, and despite winning the pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in his return, he only made four more starts with HMS before being released from the team.
After bouncing around from team to team, Craven eventually found a home at PPI Motorsports, with whom he earned two Cup victories, including what was then the closest finish in NASCAR history at Darlington Raceway. But the nagging question is what Craven’s career could have been if not for the injuries, which affected him the remainder of his career.
Switching gears back to Bowman, we’re only three races into the 2026 campaign, and his career may already be at a crossroads.
Vertigo is no animal to wrestle with, having a versatile lifespan that can last from a day to several weeks. And given its symptoms of dizziness and nausea, those obviously aren’t ideal conditions if you’re planning on driving a racecar.
The timing of this illness only adds to Bowman’s misfortunes. It’s no secret that Bowman has lagged behind his HMS teammates the past few seasons. Larson is the reigning champion, Byron made three consecutive Championship 4 appearances before this year’s playoff revamp and Elliott is a former champion himself. Meanwhile, Bowman has only finished inside the top 10 in points twice since arriving at Hendrick’s empire in 2018.
The other wrinkle in this whole ordeal is the irony surrounding Alfredo’s opportunity. Remember, it was a concussion that Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered in 2016 that opened the door for Bowman to show his talent behind the wheel after years of flailing with backmarker teams. Adding to the irony is the fact that the race that really sold Earnhardt on Bowman to become the former’s heir was at Bowman’s home track Phoenix, where he won the pole and led 194 laps before losing several spots on a late restart.
Alfredo has kept his foot in the door by driving for mid-pack teams in NOAPS since losing his Cup ride at Front Row Motorsports following 2021. He has also made occasional starts with Beard Motorsports at the Cup level, and serves as HMS’s simulator driver.
Initially rushed through the ranks when he first arrived on the scene, Alfredo now steps into the opportunity of a lifetime to not only prove his worth as a driver but also perhaps imitate the same path that Bowman blazed in his climb to the Cup Series.
All in all, worst-case scenario may be an understatement when describing Bowman’s start to the season. And when he does return, the noise will only grow louder with each passing week that he doesn’t visit victory lane.
Should this spell the beginning of the end for Bowman at HMS, the silver lining when compared with Craven is the fact that Craven found success later in his career. In Bowman’s case, he has proven he has what it takes to get to victory lane.
That said, history is fond of repeating itself, and nearly three decades after injuries and ailments cost Craven a shot on the brightest stage, Bowman could find himself in similar shoes if things don’t turn around at one of NASCAR’s most successful teams.
Luken Glover joined the Frontstretch team in 2020 as a news writer before elevating to a columnist, where he served as the longtime writer for The Underdog House. Currently, he is an editor for the site and conducts feature interviews. Glover has covered several forms of racing for the site including NASCAR, CARS Tour, and SRX events.
A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a promotional writer, elementary athletic director, and basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.
Why trash talk Bowman now? Comparing him to Craven is ridiculous. Craven was a meth head idiot who wrecked every car he ever drove yet he calls himself the greatest of all time. I just asked yesterday why FrontStretch trash talks every driver.
I don’t think Craven is the one on drugs.
Haven’t seen anything yet, but I wonder if the root cause for his vertigo diagnosis will ever come to light. It’s generally brought on by other issues, not something which develops on its own. Truly hope it’s not due to past brain trauma, as Bowman has had more than his fair share of hard crashes.
Not too long ago he was known as Bowman The Showman, and had speed to match most any other Cup driver. So we know he once had “it”, but something has changed along the way.
I like Bowman, and it seems he’s been in an underdog position most of his career. I hope he has his health and makes decisions based upon this, not some misguided attempt to be “tough”. Given his personality and fame, he doesn’t need auto racing to remain well paid.