From Tucson quarter midgets to a record run of Daytona 500 front-row starts, the Hendrick driver has announced he will step back from full-time Cup racing after 2027.
Tucson-born Alex Bowman, who was born in 1993, drives the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. His eight Cup wins and Daytona 500 front-row streak stand out, and his full-time career is scheduled to end after 2027.
Alex Bowman is an American stock car driver and team owner who races full time in the NASCAR Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports. He is known for a record run of six consecutive front-row starts at the Daytona 500, from 2018 to 2023, and he won the pole in 2018, 2021 and 2023. Hendrick has confirmed that he will retire from full-time competition after the 2027 season.
How did Bowman begin his racing career?
Bowman was born in Tucson, Arizona, and started racing at the age of seven, in quarter midget cars with the United States Auto Club in 2000. By 2006 he had won nine national championships and 165 feature races. The grounding in short-track racing gave him the reputation that followed him into stock cars.
In 2008 he took the USAC National Focus Midget title with eleven wins, and he also claimed the California Dirt Focus Midget crown. In 2009 he was named USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year. A serious accident in February 2010 fractured his clavicle and a rib, but he continued to field a midget in select races in later years.
A Tucson midget driver who became a Hendrick front-runner, won eight Cup races and is now planning his full-time exit after 2027.
How did Bowman move into stock cars?
Bowman switched to full-bodied stock cars in 2010, when he was eighteen. He made two Rev-Oil Pro Cup starts and a late model start that year. In 2011 he moved to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East with X Team Racing, finished sixth in the series points and won Rookie of the Year honours.
That same year he drove two ARCA Racing Series events for Venturini Motorsports and won both, at Madison International Speedway and Kansas Speedway. In 2012 he moved to ARCA full time with Cunningham Motorsports as a development driver for Penske Racing. He won races at Salem Speedway, Winchester Speedway, Iowa Speedway and Kansas Speedway that season and took the pole for the inaugural ARCA Mobile 200 at Mobile International Speedway.
How did Bowman develop in the Xfinity Series?
Bowman made his national series debut in 2012, driving for Turner Motorsports at Chicagoland Speedway, where he finished 17th. He also drove for RAB Racing at Kentucky and Phoenix that year and for Turner at Dover. The experience prepared him for a full season in 2013, when he raced for RAB and competed for Rookie of the Year.
He won his first Nationwide pole at the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas, then took another pole there later in the year. RAB released him before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and he finished the year with six top-ten finishes in 32 starts. Later he drove for Hattori Racing Enterprises at Dover and for JR Motorsports at Charlotte and Phoenix.
| Season | Series and team | Notable result |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | K&N Pro Series East, X Team Racing | Sixth in points, Rookie of the Year |
| 2012 | ARCA, Cunningham Motorsports | Four series wins, pole at Mobile |
| 2013 | Xfinity, RAB Racing | Two poles at Texas, six top tens in 32 starts |
| 2014 | Cup, BK Racing, No. 23 | Rookie of the Year contender |
| 2015 | Cup, Tommy Baldwin Racing, No. 7 | Missed the Daytona 500 field |
| 2016 | Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 88 | First pole, at Phoenix |
| 2017 | Xfinity, Chip Ganassi Racing | First national series win, at Charlotte |
| 2019 | Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 88 | First Cup win, at Chicagoland |
| 2020 | Cup, Hendrick Motorsports | Auto Club 400 win, sixth in points |
| 2021 | Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 48 | Four wins, 14th in points |
| 2024 | Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 48 | Chicago street race win, ninth in points |
How did Bowman's Cup career start?
Bowman's first full season in the Cup Series came in 2014 with BK Racing in the No. 23. He had tested for the team in January 2014 as part of Preseason Thunder before the Daytona 500, and the team hired him for the full schedule that year as a Rookie of the Year contender.
In 2015 he drove the No. 7 for Tommy Baldwin Racing across the full season. He failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 after a multi-car wreck in his duel race. At New Hampshire his car caught fire when rubber from a blown tyre got into the engine, and he later blew another tyre in the final lap and hit the wall. Tommy Baldwin Racing parted ways with him in January 2016.
How did Bowman get his Hendrick ride?
His break came when Earnhardt Jr. missed the rest of the 2016 season with concussion issues. Bowman drove the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports at Loudon in the New Hampshire 301. He ran as high as eighth before he blew a tyre and hit the wall, finishing 26th. He then alternated the car with Jeff Gordon for the rest of the year.
That season Bowman won his first career pole at Phoenix. He led the most laps in that race with 197 and tried to pass Matt Kenseth for the lead with six laps to go. As he went by, Kyle Busch tapped him from behind and spun Kenseth out, and Bowman recovered to finish sixth.
In December 2016 Rick Hendrick announced that Bowman would drive the No. 88 at the 2017 Advance Auto Parts Clash, and Earnhardt Jr., who was also eligible, chose to let him take the car out of appreciation for the 2016 substitution. Bowman finished third there. When Earnhardt Jr. announced his retirement in the spring, he backed Bowman to replace him, and on July 20 Hendrick named Bowman as the 2018 driver of the No. 88.
What were the Hendrick years in the No. 88 like?
Bowman opened 2018 by winning the pole for the Daytona 500 on February 11. He made his Playoff debut that year with two top-five finishes and nine top tens. He advanced to the Round of 12 after the Charlotte Roval race but was eliminated after the fall Kansas race, and he finished sixteenth in points.
The 2019 season showed clear improvement. He had three consecutive second-place finishes at Talladega, Dover and Kansas, and at Kansas he dominated the late stage before Brad Keselowski passed him with eight laps to go. He won the fan vote to make the All-Star Race field that year.
At the Camping World 400 at Chicagoland Speedway he again dominated the final stage and was passed by Kyle Larson with eight to go. This time he came back to pass Larson with six to go and won his first Cup race. He then took a sixth at Las Vegas and runner-up to Chase Elliott at the Charlotte Roval, which carried him into the Round of 12. He was eliminated after Kansas that fall.
What did the 2020 Auto Club 400 win mean?
Bowman's second Cup win came at Auto Club Speedway on March 1, 2020. He led 110 laps and won stage 1 before beating Kyle Busch by nine seconds after Ryan Blaney made a late pit stop. Hendrick then announced on October 6 that Bowman and crew chief Greg Ives would move to the No. 48 for 2021, replacing the retiring Jimmie Johnson, while Kyle Larson took the No. 88 and renumbered it No. 5.
The move also brought Ally Financial to the car, which had previously sponsored Johnson. Bowman finished sixth in the 2020 standings, and the change in car number gave him a new identity as the Hendrick driver for the next phase of his career.
How did the 2021 season go in the No. 48?
Bowman started 2021 by winning the pole for the Daytona 500. After an uneven start he won at Richmond, holding off Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano in a late restart with twelve laps to go. The win was his third career victory, and it was the first time the No. 48 had returned to victory lane since Johnson's 2017 triumph at the AAA 400 Drive for Autism.
Three weeks later he won the Drydene 400, his second win of the season. On June 18 he agreed a contract extension that kept him at Hendrick through 2023. He won again at Pocono when Larson, who was leading, blew a tyre going into the last corner on the final lap. He then won at Martinsville, where Denny Hamlin was spun from the lead in a late collision and Bowman went on to take the race.
Hamlin called Bowman a hack after that contact, and Bowman finished the season fourteenth in points despite a playoff run that ended in the Round of 8.
What setbacks hit Bowman in 2022 and 2023?
In 2022 Bowman qualified second for the Daytona 500 but slammed into the flipping car of Harrison Burton during lap 63. He kept going but lost four laps and finished 24th. A week later at Fontana he hit the outside wall late in the race and finished 25th. He then took the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas, his seventh career win, after a duel Kyle Larson on the final laps. Kyle Busch later called the win all luck, no skill after Bowman took two tyres on a late caution pit stop.
At Circuit of the Americas he led into turn 19 on the final lap before Ross Chastain bumped A. J. Allmendinger into him, and Bowman finished second. A concussion from the Texas crash forced him to miss the races at Talladega, the Charlotte Roval, Las Vegas, Homestead and Martinsville. Noah Gragson drove the No. 48 in those events, and Bowman was cleared for the final race in late October. He finished 16th in the standings.
The 2023 season started well with a fifth-place finish at the Daytona 500, but penalties then caught up with the team. The No. 48 was docked one hundred driver and owner points after unapproved hood louvers were found at Phoenix, and crew chief Blake Harris was suspended for four races and fined $100,000. A second penalty for altered greenhouse parts after Richmond cost another sixty points.
On April 25 Bowman suffered a back injury in a sprint car accident at West Burlington, Iowa. Josh Berry, who had substituted for Chase Elliott earlier in the year, drove the No. 48 while he recovered. Bowman returned at Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 and finished twelfth, but the missed races and poor finishes left him outside the playoffs.
How did the 2024 season bring Bowman back?
Bowman started 2024 by finishing second to teammate William Byron at the Daytona 500. He then ended an 80-race winless streak by winning the Chicago street race on wet tyres. A late pass on Joey Hand set up the win, and he held off Tyler Reddick, who was on faster slicks. He entered the playoffs as the twelfth seed.
He scored his fifth career pole for the playoff race at Bristol, his first pole that was not for the Daytona 500 since 2016. Through the Round of 16 he earned 120 points, the most of any driver. At the Charlotte Roval he finished 18th and would have advanced, but a post-race inspection found his car below the minimum weight and he was disqualified. Bowman finished the season ninth in the final standings.
What happened in 2025 and 2026?
In 2025 Bowman finished sixth at the Daytona 500 and won another pole, at Homestead, where he almost won the race before Larson caught him late. He also took a pole at Bristol. A hard crash at Michigan after contact with Cole Custer left him sore, but he recovered to finish fourth at Mexico City the following week.
He made the playoffs with a late push, and a pit crew that struggled at Darlington and Gateway cost him time. At the second Bristol playoff race he needed a win to advance and finished eighth, which eliminated him. He finished the year 13th in the standings.
The 2026 season opened with health problems. He exited the car at lap 71 of the race at Austin because of vertigo, and Myatt Snider took over and finished. Anthony Alfredo drove for him at Phoenix, and Justin Allgaier filled in at Las Vegas, Darlington and Martinsville. Bowman was medically cleared on April 9 and returned at Bristol.
When will Bowman step back from full-time racing?
On July 23, 2026, Hendrick Motorsports said Bowman will step back from full-time NASCAR racing once the 2027 campaign ends. The 2027 campaign will therefore be his final full-time season in the Cup Series, and he has spent much of his career in the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Away from the Cup car, Bowman owns Alex Bowman Racing, which fields a dirt midget and a sprint car. He has been known as Bowman the Showman, a nickname that reflects his flair on the track as much as his willingness to take risks. His run of six straight Daytona 500 front-row starts is the record that most fans associate with him.
