NASCAR: 5 drivers set for bounce-back seasons in 2024
By Asher Fair
2. Alex Bowman
No, Alex Bowman has not had as much success as Chase Elliott has since joining Hendrick Motorsports as a full-time driver in 2018, but he too saw a once promising season derailed by an injury he suffered away from NASCAR Cup Series competition.
Bowman missed three races after a sprint car crash, and despite spending time at the top of the point standings -- in fact, the No. 48 team's first time atop the non-playoff standings since 2013 -- toward the beginning of the year, he failed to get back on the right track.
There is little doubt that he too will bounce back in a big way. He may not be a perennial championship contender, but he had made the playoffs in all five of his first five seasons with Hendrick Motorsports, and like Elliott, he had made it to at least the round of 12 every single time.
Bowman is a seven-time race winner who hasn't won since March 2022, but he has shown the ability to show up when it counts, with quite a few of his victories having come by staying out of trouble by being in the right place at the right time. It's how he managed to win a career-high four races in 2021, and it will likely be how he finds victory lane again.