NASCAR: 5 possible replacements for Kevin Harvick

Possible Kevin Harvick replacements: No. 5 – Alex Bowman

On paper, Hendrick Motorsports shouldn’t look to replace Alex Bowman after the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, but the door remains open to that possibility.

Bowman is the only one of the team’s four drivers who didn’t sign a contract extension during the 2022 season, and while you could make the case that this was true because he was already under contract through 2023, Kyle Larson was also already under contract through 2023 yet signed through 2026. Chase Elliott signed through 2027 and William Byron signed through 2025.

Ally Financial clearly like having Bowman as the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, but their contract with Hendrick Motorsports is also set to expire at the end of the 2023 season.

In the off chance that Bowman becomes available, he would be too good for Stewart-Haas Racing to pass up.

While he is by no means a world-beater, he has qualified for the playoffs — and advanced to at least the round of 12 — in each of his first five seasons with Hendrick Motorsports. He has found victory lane at least once in each of the last four seasons, including a career-high four times in 2021.

And at 29 years of age, he is still relatively young. Stewart-Haas Racing would know exactly what they were getting by signing the Tucson, Arizona native, and they wouldn’t need to sign someone presumably nearing the end of his career in doing so.

This option also prevents them from taking a risk on somebody much younger, who could perhaps be signed when Aric Almirola is (actually) ready to retire.