“It’s easy to get in that spot”: Alex Bowman exposes his vulnerability after disastrous ‘injuries’ amounted to a “terrible” season

Considering the significant challenges Alex Bowman faced in 2022 and 2023, his impressive return to the postseason this year clearly demonstrates a resurgence of his winning momentum. However, it's important to acknowledge that the path to this success was far from straightforward.

Bowman suffered a concussion at Texas Motor Speedway and thus opted out of the final five races of 2022. He started 2023 as the regular season point leader but got derailed again. His injury from a dirt race at 34 Raceway kept him sidelined from running three point-paying races in the spring.

During that period, the biggest challenge for Bowman perhaps was to not question himself. During a recent interview, the 31-year-old addressed the situation, saying (via Racer),

“I don’t know if I questioned myself, but I think definitely after two back-to-back bigger injuries, it’s easy to get in that spot. It wasn’t much fun, we were so good before I broke my back and came back and we were good for like two weeks and then terrible the rest of the season. It was crazy how bad we were at places that I’m typically really good at.”

But everything changed when NASCAR arrived at the Chicago street circuit. That day, i.e., July 7, Bowman snapped an 80-race winless streak and made the playoffs as well. He finished the season ninth on points with eight top-5s and 17 top-10s.

“This year, we didn’t start the year (well) but we turned it around pretty quickly. I think we’ve done a lot of the right things and I think being on the other side of it definitely feels good,” Alex Bowman added.

Bowman will return behind the wheel of the No. 48 Chevy Camaro in 2025, eyeing a multi-win season. Notably, 2021 was the first and only season in which he was able to secure multiple wins as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver.

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Alexander Bowman sets clear goals for 2025

The goal for Alex Bowman in 2025 is to win races. Winning is what will get him into the playoffs and help him surpass a personal mark of P6 on points to round off the season (2020). In the interview mentioned earlier, Bowman said,

“We need to go win races. That’s the biggest thing.”

However, winning races doesn’t necessarily guarantee a championship title in the NextGen era. Take Bowman’s teammate Kyle Larson’s season, for example. The Elk Grove native won six races in 2024- the most among all drivers and still ended up outside of the top 5.

On the other hand, Team Penske’s Joey Logano ended up 15th in the regular season standings but won his third Cup Series Championship ten weeks later. Notably, it was Bowman’s disqualification from the playoff race at Charlotte that put Logano back in contention for the ultimate honor.

“It’s so hard to make an outlook just because who would have said Logano would win the championship in the middle of the year?” Alex Bowman explained. “I do think being on the good side of things instead of coming off a poor end of the season is really good. So, we just need to use that in the right ways and capitalize on it and go from there.”

Bowman will hit the track on February 2 with the season-opening clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Fans can watch the race live on FOX or listen to radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio from 8 pm ET onwards.