Approximately 7 months have been removed from fractured vertebrae After a tough season, Alex Bowman is ready to hit the reset button and get back into the fight for wins after being sidelined for a while.
“The (2023) season was tough,” Bowman said before his final game in Phoenix. “So we were kind of getting kicked in the teeth every week for six months.”
Bowman missed four weeks of the season recovering from injuries sustained in a sprint car accident at Iowa State. He missed the points race and All-Star race at Dover, Kansas and Darlington, then raced in the Coca-Cola 600.
Bowman returned to the car for the Crown Jewel race, but this was just a step towards getting him back to health. There were many moments in the second half of the season where he endured aches and pains as he continued to recover.
“The week after I got over 600, I really couldn’t walk,” Bowman said. “I felt really good for a little while after that. My lower back hurt a lot on the Indy road course.
“When I tested the Indy Oval the next few days, I was feeling a lot more soreness than I expected. And last week (at Martinsville) I felt a little bit more soreness. So the hard-braking course was difficult for me. I think so.”
The team with jersey number 48 has shown good performance from the beginning of this season. Bowman had top-10 finishes in six of his first seven races. He took pole position twice in his first seven races.Bowman took the points lead, with his teammate William Byron taking the points. 60 points penalty for greenhouse violation.
When Bowman returned from injury, he and the No. 48 team struggled. He has only advanced to the second qualifying round once in 23 races since his return. He had four top-10 finishes and only one top-5 finish. He crashed in both Darlington and Las Vegas.
This season was the first time Bowman missed the playoffs since becoming one of Hendrick Motorsports’ full-time drivers in 2018. Bowman went winless for the first time since 2018 and finished the season in 20th place in points.
“There were some weeks where I was really hard on myself,” Bowman said. “Darlington was my fault. Vegas was my fault. Two days where I didn’t make the top five because of me. We were far apart for a few weeks.”
“…We showed what we were capable of at the beginning of the season. We broke our backs and messed it up.”
Continued recovery from a back injury was just part of his developmental season. Bowman also had to learn a different approach to the mental side of Cup racing while experiencing these struggles.
“Before, I would just have a bad weekend and carry it with me for a week and make myself miserable for a week and really tear myself down over my mistakes,” Bowman said.
“I’ve had a lot of bad weeks this year, so I think I’ve had to learn how to deal with them in a better way and be more positive about things.”
With the season over, Bowman will have time to reset before heading into his first points race at Daytona in February. That doesn’t mean he’ll walk away from Hendrick Motorsports.
There is still significant work to be done before the 2024 season. Bowman must continue training and getting in shape for 2024. He must continue to work with crew chief Blake Harris and No. 48 to avoid a delayed start to next season.
Once the checkered flag waves in Phoenix, the work rarely stops.
“We’re in the sims on Mondays, so yeah, there’s not really an offseason for us,” Bowman said. “They keep us a little bit busy. I mean, if it’s mid-December, we might be able to take a little bit of time off, but other than that we’re still planning training and trying to keep everything on track. I’m here.”