LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — His father called wanting to know why Alex Bowman didn’t race at the NASCAR’s O’Reilly series stop at Nashville Superspeedway as previously scheduled. Making sure his son was OK was paramount considering Bowman’s latest injury in a battle with vertigo that had the driver wondering if he’d ever drive again. “I would say I’m as close to 100% as I’m going to get,” Bowman said before the Cracker Barrel 400 Cup Series race Sunday night.Vertigo forced Bowman out of his No. 48 Chevrolet during the Cup race at Circuit of the Americas in Texas three months ago. He missed races at Phoenix and Las Vegas, and the decision not to drive for JR Motorsports at Darlington or Nashville in NASCAR’s second-tier series was made in advance when Bowman was busy trying to figure out what caused his vertigo. “Honestly, I forgot about it, and then I saw everybody confused this week,” Bowman said. “My dad called me, he’s like, ‘Why aren’t you running that race?’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So, yeah, I totally forgot about it.”
Bowman, who has more than 360 career Cup Series starts, has been driving for Hendrick Motorsports full time since the 2018 season and made the playoffs in all but one season. He missed five races in 2022 with a concussion and missed three races the next season with a broken back.
