Bristol Motor Speedway (Bristol, Va.) — Alex Bowman admits when he was dizzy and puking in his car during the race last month at Circuit of the Americas, he wasn’t sure if he would ever race again.
“When I got out at COTA, I was like, ‘This is probably it.’ That was what was going through my head,” Bowman said at a news conference on Saturday.
“That sucked. And thankful that I get another shot at it.”
Alex Bowman gets back on track this weekend at Bristol after being sidelined with vertigo.
Bowman missed the next four races as he met with several doctors to treat his vertigo. He was cleared to race this week after driving a passenger car on a road course and being in the driver simulator, which mimics the feeling of driving the race car and is often a tool to see if a driver has a return of neurological symptoms.
The 33-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver said primarily he had to get through those sessions without feeling dizzy, which he couldn’t do in the few weeks after COTA.
“There was definitely, for me, concern but at the same time, just trying to get back feeling well enough to to do life,” Bowman said.
He didn’t go into specifics on what doctors think was the cause.
“It’s like anything. There’s more than one probably, 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 so many different things. It’s hard to pinpoint one exact thing.
“But the good news is now I’m feeling really well and ready to go.”
Obviously, it was difficult to get out of the car at COTA, Bowman said, in his first comments since that race.
“COTA wasn’t a lot of fun for me. Everything was fine until it wasn’t,” Bowman said. “Obviously in the car [with] dizziness, throwing up on myself, spinning, kind of all of the things. So it wasn’t fun. I’m not pumped that I had to get out.
“Obviously, I’ve raced through a lot of injuries, but that was one where I was going to end up running into something or somebody, and the smart thing to do in that case was to get out.”
Bowman was replaced by Anthony Alfredo for Phoenix and then Justin Allgaier for the last three races. HMS President Jeff Andrews said they won’t have a backup driver on-call for Bowman this weekend. With Allgaier already here for the O’Reilly Series race today, he would be available if need be.
“I just spent a lot of time with a lot of different doctors and had a lot of different help to go about the best rehab process possible, and kind of best practices going forward and everything to get back to where I needed to be to get back in the car,” Bowman said.
Returning at Bristol, a high-banked 0.533-mile concrete oval, will certainly test Bowman, who has won the pole for the past two spring races at the track. He returned from a concussion in 2022 for the last race of the year after he was cleared and gave a similar response this time as to why he is returning at what might not seem like the best time considering the track and the schedule.
“I’m a race-car driver, so you tell me I’m clear, I’m going to go do it,” Bowman said. “It probably is the worst place possible to come back to — not just that it’s physical, but it’s a track that is extremely difficult.”
Bowman had a rough start in his first three races and sits 144 points out of 16th in the standings, so it is unlikely — but not impossible — that he could rally over the next 19 races to qualify for the Chase.
He would need a waiver to be eligible for the title because of the rule requiring a driver to compete in all races.
He is expected to receive one.
Bowman, who has eight career victories in his eight-plus seasons at Hendrick Motorsports, is in a contract year. He is used to dealing with injury. He missed five races in 2022 because of a concussion and three races in 2023 because of a broken back suffered in a sprint-car accident.
“I’ve put HMS in a tough spot multiple times now … since 2022, 2023 and now this. They’ve probably given me more grace at times than I deserve,” Bowman said.
“So super thankful for that and just ready to get back rolling.”
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