While everybody wasn’t paying full attention last week, either anticipating the Brickyard 400 or this week’s rare off date, two rather prominent NASCAR Cup Series drivers made some rather dramatic statements.
The kind of statements that, in other times, or, in some cases, these times might send fellow drivers into some form of disbelief.
First, Alex Bowman, talking about his decision to retire next year at the age of 34:
“This is kind of always what I wanted. This sport has given me a lot. I love this sport, obviously. I love NASCAR racing. I think the guys that race forever—that’s super cool. That just was never going to be me. I’m excited for what the rest of my life holds. I’m honestly really just ready to be a normal person, in a lot of ways.”
And, Chase Briscoe, 31, talking about the dream of more than a few drivers, the possibility of running the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indianapolis 500 on the same day:
“Truthfully, I love the Indy 500. The whole month of May. I watch every practice. Obviously, tune in to qualifying and the race, too. I don’t know, for whatever reason, I’ll be the first one to admit, I don’t think I’m man enough to do it. Like—I don’t want to wreck at 240 (miles per hour)… Before I got to the Cup Series, I wanted to do the Indy 500, and once I got here, I got married and I had kids, and if I’m 31 and single with no kids, I would probably run the double. But having kids now, I just don’t want to risk getting hurt—and it can happen in a Cup car, too. I think just adding that risk isß just not something I’m willing to do right now.”
Here we have two experienced, winning Cup Series drivers, both driving for superteams, both in what might be described as their peak performance years, talking about what they’re NOT going to do. Bowman, planning retirement after the 2027 season no matter how he might perform next year and despite having years of potential remaining, and Briscoe, denying he would take a shot at a lifelong dream because he puts other priorities—family, health—in front.
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Chase Briscoe (#19) leads Alex Bowman at Watkins Glen International last August.
All this was somewhat amazing in its own way. This is not the kind of stuff that comes out of driver press conferences every day. Hard to imagine A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, or Bobby Allison saying such. They and others raced until they couldn’t do another lap—some beyond that point.
It’s a new day, however, and Bowman and Briscoe are showing sides of life that indicate auto racing isn’t a 24/7, all-in, constant pedal-to-the-metal existence for everyone who enters the big ring.
Maybe there are other things in life.
In Bowman’s case, any thoughts by observers that he might leave the sport early would be tied to the fact that he attracts injuries like soccer players fake them. No one would blame him for heading home to avoid aggravating old injuries or absorbing new ones. Yet, he emphasizes that sting is not the reason. He has worked overtime in the gym to keep his body moving.
“I think for me, much more of it is things I want to do outside of the race car—other goals I have in life and stuff I want to do,” he said. “If it was straight up like I can’t do this any more, it probably would have been this year. But I do feel like I can continue to do it at a high level.
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Alex Bowman.
“Like, I mean, everything goes perfect and we go win a championship and I can walk out that way… that would be amazing, right? That’s not going to make me want to stay. I think for me—health-wise, mental health-wise, kind of everything, this is what I needed to do that was best for me and things I want to do outside of the car.”
There are things “outside of the car”? Who knew?
Bowman remembers the days when he had little hope and less money, days before he got the big break at Hendrick Motorsports and became a Cup winner and occasional championship contender. He was on the way to making the “Bowman the Showman” nickname a reality, but now he sees other roads ahead.
For Briscoe, big possibilities remain in a career that could last another decade. But he’s right to put some limits on those horizons while considering the extreme downsides of serious injuries—or worse. Fortunately, death is an infrequent visitor to major league auto racing these days, but every race begins with no guarantees.
Fatalities in racing (and other sports, for that matter) sometimes are followed by somebody offering the view that, “Well, he died doing what he loved.” What goes unsaid is that those who loved him remain to live with the absence.
Mike Hembree has covered auto racing for numerous media outlets, including USA Today, NASCAR Scene, NBC Sports, The Greenville News and the SPEED Channel. He has been roaming garage areas and pit roads for decades (although the persistent rumor that he covered the first Indianapolis 500 is not true). Winner of numerous motorsports and other media awards, he also has covered virtually every other major sport. He lives near Gaffney, South Carolina and can be convinced to attend Bruce Springsteen concerts if you have tickets.