{"id":772664,"date":"2026-07-01T05:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/772664\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:27:18","slug":"alex-bowman-says-decision-on-nascar-future-coming-sooner-rather-than-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/772664\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman says decision on NASCAR future coming &#8220;sooner rather than later&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not much has gone right this season for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/alex-bowman\/14374\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alex Bowman<\/a>, one in which he entered approaching free agency and questions about his future, and that\u2019s not even including missing four races due a bout of vertigo.<\/p>\n<p>Before and after the ailment, Bowman and his No. 48 team has struggled on the track, with the car sitting 30th in the owner standings.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had some good weeks and a lot of not good weeks, unfortunately, Bowman said Tuesday during a NASCAR media teleconference. &#8220;Yeah, we&#8217;ve just struggled. It&#8217;s been really, really interesting. The places that we feel like we should run well (like) Bristol, Kansas, Dover &#8230; places that we&#8217;re historically really, really good at, Dover caught me off guard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were always fast there and we were really bad. And then places that we historically struggle at (like) Texas and Sonoma, we were good at, so that&#8217;s been confusing on that side of things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alex-bowman-hendrick-motorspor.jpg\" alt=\"Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: David Jensen \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He and crew chief Blake Harris are at a loss in a lot of ways. Since coming back, Bowman has only three top-10s and they were thirds at Talladega and Texas and a 10th on Sunday at Sonoma.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/chase-elliott\/19814\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Chase Elliott<\/a> has been his usually consistent self at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/hendrick-motorsports\/70\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hendrick Motorsports<\/a>, with two wins, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/kyle-larson\/17135\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Kyle Larson<\/a> hasn&#8217;t won in over a year and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/william-byron\/142818\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">William Byron<\/a> isn&#8217;t challenging for wins right now either.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a company, we&#8217;re a little off of where we want to be, so just trying to get pointed in the right direction,&#8221; Bowman said. &#8220;Got a lot of really smart people at Hendrick Motorsports working really hard to get things rolling where they need to be. And I think our finishes are certainly worse than they should be.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve had better cars and we&#8217;ve been running better than we finished at a lot of these places, but unfortunately, yeah, it&#8217;s been a bit of a struggle. So just trying to get pointed back in the right direction. I think Sonoma was at least a step that way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Making the Chase for the Championship as a driver or entry are now out of the question. What is a question, is what Bowman is doing next year, with rumors ranging from a one-year extension at Hendrick Motorsports to retirement amidst staggering injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Bowman conceded that he has a lot of options on the table and its getting close to time for a resolution but he&#8217;s simply focused on being the best Alex Bowman he can be right now.<\/p>\n<p>He says he isn&#8217;t racing for his job and doesn&#8217;t feel like its the end of his tenure in the No. 48.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think for me, I&#8217;m just trying to do my part to try to help HMS be the best it can be right now,&#8221; Bowman said. &#8220;And obviously, trying to get things turned back around on the 48 side of things. I definitely don&#8217;t feel like I&#8217;m racing for my job or anything like that, by any means. So yeah, really just kind of week-to-week focused on trying to get pointed back in the right direction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What is the timeline for a decision?<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/alex-bowman-hendrick-motorspor.jpg\" alt=\"Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, we&#8217;ve had a lot of different conversations and kind of trying to figure out what the best thing to do is,&#8221; Bowman said. &#8220;So I would say sooner rather than later for sure. But really, I guess I haven&#8217;t really thought about. It hasn&#8217;t been the first thing on my mind by any means, and I really just have been working hard at trying to get things pointed in the right direction, but definitely think sooner rather than later.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bowman did offer that his health will play a factor into any decision. He has also suffered concussions and a broken back during this decade that has cost him seat time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, I mean, I feel okay,&#8221; Bowman said. &#8220;I think for me, I want to make the right decision for myself, I guess. And yeah, certain things haven&#8217;t gone how we wanted them to.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But honestly, I&#8217;m at a point in my life where I&#8217;m super blessed to be in a position where I don&#8217;t have to do this forever. So I got to make the right decision, and I want Hendrick Motorsports to make the right decision and have everybody be on board with whatever we do.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So yeah, I think I have a lot of faith in Rick (Hendrick) and Jeff (Gordon) and everybody to kind of guide all of us the right way and whatever happens, happens. Honestly, I&#8217;ve just been going to the racetrack trying to do my job and haven&#8217;t &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, obviously you think about it, but it&#8217;s not like the number one thing on top of my mind all the time. I don&#8217;t go on the internet, so certainly I don&#8217;t get wound up about things. I hear about it from other people&#8230; But on my side of things, I&#8217;ve kind of avoided the rumors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not much has gone right this season for Alex Bowman, one in which he entered approaching free agency&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[3931,274160,49,48,4384,634,3628,271096,4383,82],"class_list":["post-772664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-alex-bowman-says-decision-on-nascar-future-coming-sooner-rather-than-later","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hendrick-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup","tag-sonoma","tag-sonoma-raceway","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772664","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=772664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}