“That rumor has actually been annoying,” mentioned Bowman throughout NASCAR Playoff Media Day on Wednesday.
“Clearly, my contract is thru the tip of 2026. All I can inform you is like what my bosses have instructed me, and that’s that there are not any plans to alter something. Yeah, rumors are simply rumors. Hopefully they’ll get their bulletins finished so my rumors cease, clearly. Yeah, so far as I do know, I’m driving the No. 48 subsequent 12 months.”
Bowman, who made the 2024 playoffs by way of a win on the Chicago Road Course, lags simply behind his teammates in most season-long stats. It has been an honest season for him, however Hendrick Motorsports is predicted to carry out at stage past most of their rivals. Earlier than Chicago, it had been over two years since Bowman’s final race win. He additionally missed races in 2022 on account of a concussion and 2023 on account of a again damage, which proved to be important setbacks.
Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports, Ally Chevrolet Camaro
Picture by: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Photos
When pressed on if there may be any probability he might be out at HMS, Bowman added: “I don’t suppose so. I belief my bosses and that’s what they’ve instructed me. So yeah, apart from that, simply targeted on making an attempt to be sturdy the following 10 weeks.”
The rumblings, even when unfounded, brought on Bowman to hunt affirmation on his place throughout the group.
“Yeah, I imply for me – like that’s a rumor that I’ve heard for a month,” he defined. “It bought to the purpose the place I picked up the cellphone and known as everyone, and everyone mentioned, ‘completely not’. So, that’s actually all I’ve to go on and I don’t have a motive to imagine something apart from that. There’s no – ‘oh, you should do that to maintain your job.’ Prefer it’s completely not … all the things’s positive.”
A “depressing month”
Bowman first drove for Hendrick Motorsports because the fill-in driver for a sidelined Dale Earnhardt Jr. late within the 2016 season. He grew to become a full-time for the powerhouse group in 2018 and has since received eight races. Half of these victories got here throughout a single season (2021), and solely as soon as has he ended the 12 months increased than twelfth within the standings.
“We have to go run higher. It’s been a depressing month,” admitted Bowman, who enters the playoffs with 5 straight finishes of sixteenth or worse. “We haven’t executed on a excessive stage in any respect, so we have to go run higher the following 10 weeks. However we have to do this for us and our playoff run — for Ally and the No. 48 group. There’s no ‘you should do that to maintain your job.’ So far as I do know, I’m not apprehensive about that in any respect.”
