Alex Bowman resolute in NASCAR return after vertigo bout

The Hendrick No. 48 was off to a challenging start even before the ailment

Alex Bowman got the ‘all clear’ from his doctors a week earlier than anticipated and he’s back in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 with a goal to methodically make the most he can out of the remainder of the season.

Bowman has missed the last four races due to a bout of vertigo and was cleared after passing his medical tests and then turning competitive laps in a street car around the Ten Tenths Motor Club in Concord, North Carolina.

The 32-year-old says he feels ready to go, will have tempered expectations this weekend, and Hendrick Motorsports has no one on standby after the seat had been filled by Anthony Alfredo and Justin Allgaier over the past month.

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What did he need to feel at Ten Tenths to feel confident in his readiness?

"I mean, the biggest thing was not getting dizzy," Bowman said during a media availability at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I mean, that's the main thing, right? We went to Ten Tenths that first week, and I could run a couple of laps, but then I was ready to throw up and dizzy -- just not feeling well. I couldn't drive and put myself through those G Forces and feeling well through it.

"Since then, I've done some karting, and pit practice. I've done a ton of different workouts, interval training with different doctors and I feel really good."

Bowman said there wasn't just one thing that contributed to his ailment and that the vertigo was the result of several things that needed remedy.

"Just a multitude of different things that we kind of had to work through to get me back feeling well," Bowman said. "So honestly, we worked through many different things and it's hard to pinpoint one exact thing but the good news is that now I'm feeling really well and am ready to go."

He says the only time that he didn’t think he would return was the moment it really flared up at Circuit of the Americas and he needed to be replaced in the closing laps by Myatt Snider.

So after feeling that bad, and dealing with vertigo, it’s also probably a fair question to ask why choose to come back a week early at Bristol with the G Forces and loads around the high banked half-mile.

"Because they said I could," Bowman said with a laugh. "I mean, I’m a race car driver so if you tell me I’m clear, I’m going to go do it. Yeah, this is probably the worst place possible to come back to because it’s physical and extremely difficult.

"The margins from the front of the field to the back are tiny. You look at qualifying and every hundredth is multiple spots.

"I haven’t qualified a car in a month so the expectation is that it’s going to be extremely difficult to contend at one of my best tracks, two of the last three poles here. I think those expectations probably change this weekend.”

To wit, Bowman said he just wants to get out of Bristol with a top-10 or top-15 and then start to build some momentum afterwards.

Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports president Jeff Andrews said they never question getting Bowman back in the No. 48 this season.

“Alex is part of our team and a key teammate for us and has been an integral part of our company for quite some time,” Andrews said. “We were willing to do what we needed to do to wait for him and get him back at the right time.

“I think it's a testament to Alex and how hard he worked to be back a week early. These guys are athletes and there are no shortage of stories about how hard they work to overcome adversity and return from that earlier than expected. We’re proud to have him back and are ready to go racing and see where the points fall.”

The Chase for the Championship, which would require him to make the top-16 by the end of the regular season appears to be a longshot. He’s 144 points out right now and would need multiple wins to do it.

More than anything else, Bowman is just grateful to Hendrick Motorsports for sticking by him through a concussion in 2022 and then a broken back suffered during a Sprint Car crash in 2023 before the vertigo in 2026.

"It just meant a lot to have everybody at HMS's support and also everybody at Ally and Chevrolet and everybody that makes this deal possible, right," Bowman said. "Like, I've put HMS in a tough spot multiple times now in the last, you know, five years or whatever it's been since 2022. So yeah, they've probably given me more grace at times than I deserve. I'm super thankful for that and just ready to get back rolling."

Watch: Hendrick's Andrews: Testament to Alex that he's back a week early