Alex Bowman will remain sidelined for another month as the Hendrick Motorsports driver continues to battle vertigo.
Bowman will continue to be replaced by JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier, a JR Motorsports driver in the O’Reilly Series (formerly Xfinity) who has 85 career Cup starts and does frequent at-track data-gathering testing for Chevrolet. Allgaier replaced Bowman last weekend at Las Vegas and will replace him again for upcoming races at Darlington (March 22), Martinsville (March 29) and Bristol (April 12). The series is off over Easter weekend.
The 32-year-old Bowman has missed the last two races and now will miss at least five in total before his return.
“Alex continues to experience symptoms, so we are following the guidance of the medical team and giving him the time he needs to recover,” said Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, in a news release. “We see how hard he’s working to get back behind the wheel, and we’re looking forward to his return when he’s medically cleared. Everyone at Hendrick Motorsports is 100 percent behind Alex.”
Missing five races will all but eliminate Bowman from Chase contention. He had not finished in the top 20 in any of the first three races — he began suffering vertigo symptoms during the third race of the year at Circuit of the Americas — and now sits 94 points behind the current playoff cutoff. After Bristol, he likely will be at least 150 points behind with 18 races left in the regular season, a virtually insurmountable deficit.
Bowman has missed races in three separate seasons for medical reasons. He missed five races in 2022 because of a concussion and three races in 2023 because of a broken back.
He was replaced at Phoenix by Viking Motorsports O’Reilly Series driver Anthony Alfredo, who also serves as the HMS simulator driver. Allgaier then took over as the substitute driver for Bowman starting at Las Vegas. Allgaier has won O’Reilly Series races at Darlington, Martinsville and Bristol.
“Justin is a true professional and someone we have tremendous confidence in,” Andrews said. “He’s had success at the upcoming tracks, and we appreciate him stepping in to help the No. 48 team.”
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