For the past few NASCAR Cup Series seasons, Alex Bowman's position as the so-called "weak link" at Hendrick Motorsports has led to rumors about him being replaced behind the wheel of the No. 48 Chevrolet sooner rather than later.
He owns just one win since 2022 and has now missed races in three of the past five years due to health-related reasons. He missed the playoffs for the first time in 2023, and his four-race absence in 2026 due to vertigo came as he was already 36th (last) in the point standings among full-time drivers.
With Bowman only under contract through 2026, while all three of his teammates are under contract through at least 2027, and primary sponsor Ally Financial having already signed through 2028, the speculation about Bowman's future has been louder this year than ever before.
But fans may need to pump the brakes.
After a rough outing resulted in a DNF upon his return at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bowman simply did what he needed to do to bring the car home 18th at Kansas Speedway, good for his best finish of the year.
Since then, he's recorded back-to-back third place finishes at Talladega Superspeedway and Texas Motor Speedway, and despite only running eight of 12 races (really seven, if you exclude his Circuit of the Americas race withdrawal), he's already passed a couple of full-time drivers in the standings, and he's well on his way to passing more.
Despite having been granted a playoff waiver, Bowman making it to the playoffs is still an extreme longshot, as there is no more "win and in". But if he can continue to look anything like he's looked over the past few weeks, there is simply no need for Hendrick Motorsports to move on from him at the end of the year.
First of all, while Bowman is definitely driver number four or four at HMS, there are a lot weaker "weak links" in the garage than he is, to say the least. His track record of qualifying for the playoffs in all seven seasons he hasn't missed regular season races is proof of that.
Second of all, Hendrick Motorsports already has the sponsorship stability with Ally. While that could technically make it easier to bring in somebody else, Ally and Bowman have had a strong relationship since 2021, when he moved from the No. 88 Chevrolet to the No. 48 Chevrolet upon Jimmie Johnson's retirement. They won four races together in 2021.
And perhaps most importantly, who would Hendrick Motorsports turn to? Kyle Busch makes no sense at this point, and Corey Day clearly isn't ready to make the jump.
Connor Zilisch is probably the best option, but suffice it to say he isn't going to leave Trackhouse Racing after just one season that hasn't met the completely unreasonable expectations primarily set forth by the media. Carson Hocevar was the go-to name previously, until he re-upped with Spire Motorsports through at least 2030.
Unless Bowman is fully healthy and still finds himself running 25th every week anyway, you could make a case that Hendrick Motorsports is better off leaving things just as they are, a decision they've obviously felt was in their best interest on every other occasion this rumor was brought up over the past four or five years.
We get it, that his health is a concern, but his missed starts in 2022 came in the early stages of the Next Gen car, when he wasn't the only driver to suffer a concussion in a hard crash, and his missed starts in 2023 came after an unrelated sprint car crash.
In other words, it could have been anybody. While the vertigo deal is a bit more concerning, that was reportedly not related to his concussion from 2022, and the fact that he was cleared after admitting that he felt his career could be over is a massively positive sign.
Perhaps it's also a sign that his Hendrick Motorsports tenure won't end as soon as many fans once assumed it would.
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