{"id":593095,"date":"2026-04-09T19:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/593095\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:12:10","slug":"how-chase-format-impacts-alex-bowmans-nascar-bristol-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/593095\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chase format impacts Alex Bowman’s NASCAR Bristol return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Bowman<\/a> is making his return at Bristol.<\/p>\n

Bowman will return for the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> race on April 12 at the half-mile oval after missing four races while recovering from vertigo<\/a>, Hendrick Motorsports said on April 9.<\/p>\n

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The 32-year-old exited out of the No. 48 Chevrolet during the March 1 race at COTA with vertigo symptoms. Bowman missed races at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Darlington and Martinsville.<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports initially announced last month that Bowman would miss the Bristol race with Justin Allgaier subbing in, but Bowman completed laps in a streetcar in North Carolina before doing simulator work and pit stop practice without restriction. Bowman also received a medical evaluation before being cleared.<\/p>\n

How new Chase format impacts Alex Bowman’s 2026 season<\/p>\n

Looking forward, Bowman has a long road to factoring into the Chase picture. He had already struggled in the first three races of the year with three finishes outside the top 20; after missing four races, Bowman is currently 144 points behind 16th place Daniel Suarez.<\/p>\n

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In previous years under the old playoff format, Bowman’s path to a playoff spot would be clear-cut: Get an injury waiver, then lock into the playoffs with a race victory.<\/p>\n

Bowman has 19 races to make up the 144-point deficit, while also considering that Chase contenders Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric are too below the current cutline.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Chase format impacts Alex Bowman’s Bristol NASCAR Cup return<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman is making his return at Bristol. Bowman will return for the Food City 500 NASCAR Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[3931,49,48,4384,49432,634,82,225518],"class_list":{"0":"post-593095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-alex-bowman","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-hendrick-motorsports","12":"tag-justin-allgaier","13":"tag-nascar","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-vertigo-symptoms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}