{"id":165223,"date":"2025-09-18T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/165223\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:30:07","slug":"kyle-petty-delivers-verdict-on-alex-bowmans-nascar-future-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/165223\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Petty delivers verdict on Alex Bowman\u2019s NASCAR future – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Bowman\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> Playoff push lasted just one round, with the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet unable to reach the Round of 12 alongside teammates Kyle Larson<\/a>, William Byron<\/a>, and Chase Elliott<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A mistake-laden 40-second trip to pit road all but ruined Bowman\u2019s Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway<\/a>, with more pit errors costing him dearly in the second race at World Wide Technology Raceway<\/a>, leaving him with a mountain to climb at Bristol.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Bowman, despite changes to his pit crew<\/a> and an objectively solid eighth-place finish at the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, the mountain proved too steep as he, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, and Josh Berry all dropped out of the running<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following Bowman\u2019s Playoff exit, NASCAR legend Kyle Petty delivered his verdict on the driver of the No. 48, via NASCAR.com<\/a>, while also weighing in on calls for him to be dropped by Rick Hendrick. \u201c[Bowman] has not performed this year, not to the level that the other teams have, but he has outperformed Chase Elliott for a lot of weeks. So let\u2019s go back to that,\u201d Petty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets knocked out in the first round, and the cries are, \u2018Should Hendrick replace Alex Bowman in that car? Should he do this? Should he do that?\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve been around this sport a long time. I remember when Rick had one car. I remember when Rick had two cars. I remember when Rick had three cars, and one of them never could hit a lick of a black snake, never ran good at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s always been the M.O. at Hendrick Motorsports. They always have one car that lags behind a little bit. The 48 team seems to be the team since Jimmie Johnson left that lags behind a little bit. I don\u2019t know why. I don\u2019t know what the reason is. That\u2019s just the way it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Bowman just happens to be the driver of the moment or the flavour of the month.\u201d<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n

Petty\u2019s position is that neither he nor fans are in a position to sway Hendrick\u2019s stance on the matter, that Bowman is ultimately a beneficial presence to the team, and that, therefore, questioning his continued presence is pointless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Rick\u2019s decision, not our decision. It\u2019s not our decision. We have a voice, we have an opinion, but it\u2019s not our decision,\u201d Petty said. \u201cThe sponsor likes him. Rick likes him. The team likes him. He adds something to the combination, and he helps the whole group move forward. So let\u2019s give him another shot, let\u2019s give him another shot next year, and then come back and talk to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowman, who first raced for Hendrick full-time in 2018, has another seven races to impress this season, starting with the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, ahead of trips to Kansas Speedway and Charlotte\u2019s Roval, after which Larson, Byron, and Elliott will all hope to have made the cut for the Round of Eight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff push lasted just one round, with the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[15892,3141,5263,55711,425,14757,99],"class_list":["post-165223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-hendrick-motorsports","tag-kyle-larson","tag-kyle-petty","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-playoffs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}