![\"Chase](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1482666004.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott spoke about Alex Bowman’s NASCAR return. <\/p>\n
In the last four NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series races, Chase Elliott has been without Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman on the track.<\/p>\n Bowman, the driver of the No. 48, has been sidelined the last four races due to a vertigo diagnosis. The symptoms began a week prior to the Arizona native\u2019s absence in the Cup race at COTA, which forced him to exit the race prematurely.<\/p>\n In the wake of Bowman\u2019s return to the driver\u2019s seat for Sunday\u2019s Food City 500 at Bristol, Elliott weighed in on the difficulties his teammate has had to endure.<\/p>\n Chase Elliott on Alex Bowman\u2019s struggles: \u2018Hate some of the things he\u2019s had to endure\u2019<\/p>\n On Saturday at BMS, Elliott spoke to the media<\/a> and addressed his HMS teammate\u2019s NASCAR return.<\/p>\n The driver of the No. 9 had nothing but positive things to say about Bowman as a teammate, and is sympathetic to some of the obstacles that have hindered him throughout his Cup career.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been a great teammate to have at HMS. Certainly, I just hate some of the things he\u2019s had\u00a0to endure throughout the course of his career. A lot of times, [it] seems unfair, but I think he has handled it with a lot of class. The work he\u2019s put in to get back and to get back this fast and also be willing to do that, that takes a lot of commitment and also a lot of courage, too, from his perspective for what he went through at COTA,\u201d Elliott said. <\/p>\n Bowman\u2019s 2026 hiatus is not the first time he has had to come out of the Cup car.<\/p>\n After suffering a concussion in a September 2022 crash at Texas, Bowman missed out on five straight<\/a> NASCAR Cup Series races.<\/p>\n In April 2023, Bowman suffered a fractured vertebra<\/a> in his back following a sprint car accident, forcing him to miss three points-paying races and the All-Star Race that year.<\/p>\n Elliott is not a stranger to being sidelined from NASCAR competition, either.<\/p>\n In 2023, the 2020 Cup Series champion missed six races<\/a> after suffering a fractured tibia in his leg due to a snowboarding accident. That same year, Elliott was suspended one race<\/a> after intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elliott hopeful for Bowman\u2019s 2026 season<\/p>\n Elliott is pleased to have Bowman back in the driver lineup this weekend in Bristol.<\/p>\n Whatever it might entail, the Georgia native wants to see Bowman have a solid run in the Food City 500, as well as the remainder of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHappy to have him back. I hope they have a great weekend and ultimately want to see him just be healthy and have a good, strong rest of the year, wherever that takes him,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n If Bowman wants to have a shot at making The Chase, he will have to go to work quickly.<\/p>\n Entering Bristol, the eight-time Cup Series winner has only scored 23 points in 2026. He is 144 points behind the cut line for the Chase.<\/p>\n The Food City 500 is scheduled for today (Sunday, April 12), and is set to get underway at 3 p.m. Eastern time.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Chase Elliott spoke about Alex Bowman’s NASCAR return. In the last four NASCAR Cup Series races, Chase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-599595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599595","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=599595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}