Alex Bowman is under contract with Hendrick Motorsports through the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. But it seems like every year, there are rumors about the team looking to replace him.
Last year, there were those who believed that Justin Haley was going to replace him, up until Rick Ware Racing effectively traded Haley late in the season to Spire Motorsports, where he was then signed through at least the 2025 season.
Bowman has undoubtedly been the fourth driver at Rick Hendrick's team for most of his stint there since he arrived as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s replacement in 2018.
Since March 2022, he has just one victory, while all of his teammates have earned at least six wins, and each has recorded at least five wins in a single season during that stretch.
And while all of his teammates have made multiple Championship 4 appearances, combining for six since the current group of four drivers was assembled with Kyle Larson's addition in 2021, he has never made it past the round of 8, and he hasn't even been there since 2020.
He was also the only Hendrick Motorsports driver who did not make it to the round of 8 last year, though it took a post-race penalty in the cutoff race to keep him out of it.
The annual Alex Bowman rumor needs to be put to bed
Adding fuel to the speculation is the fact that Ally Financial is under contract to serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 48 Chevrolet through 2028, yet Bowman's deal only goes through 2026 and has not been extended in any way since before the 2023 season began.
The problem with replacing Bowman is that they'd be replacing a driver who, despite not having the success of his three ultra-successful teammates, is well above average and consistently performs at a high level.
Bowman wasn't able to hold off Larson in the closing laps of Sunday's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but after starting on pole, the Straight Talk Wireless 400 was arguably his most complete race performance since he won at Auto Club Speedway back in March 2020.
The runner-up finish vaulted him into third place in the point standings, where he trails only teammates William Byron and Larson. That kind of performance should put this particular rumor to bed.
Why try to improve that? Why fix what isn't broken?
And as far as Bowman being the team's "weak link", he is easily the strongest "weak link" among all multi-car teams. And quite frankly, there isn't really any close competition.
There is sometimes a misconception in racing, not just in NASCAR, that putting any remotely decent driver in top-tier equipment is going to make him a championship contender.
So when somebody like Bowman isn't winning five or six races per year like Larson or Byron is, it's easy to stir the pot by suggesting that putting a driver from a mid-pack or even a backmarker team in his car is going to turn that driver into Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon.
The number of times this hasn't worked out – again, not just in NASCAR – should discredit this entire argument, especially when the swap would come at the expense of someone with Bowman's underrated skillset.
Hendrick Motorsports have no reason to replace Bowman, and there is little reason to believe they won't be looking to extend his current contract through at least 2028 at some point in the near future as well.