Bowman diving back in at the deep end with Bristol return

Alex Bowman chose to make his return to NASCAR competition this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway instead of waiting a week for a less physically demanding racetrack for one reason.

“Because they said I could,” Bowman said Saturday in his first media availability since vacating the car unexpectedly at Circuit of The Americas.

Bowman was sidelined for four races due to vertigo symptoms. The symptoms, which Bowman described as dizziness and vomiting on himself inside the race car, started during the race in Texas. He pulled off the track late in the afternoon and has been going through a recovery process since.

“I’m a race car driver, so you tell me I’m clear and I’m going to go do it,” Bowman said. “Yeah, it’s probably the worst place possible to come back to. I think not just because it’s physical, but it’s a track that is extremely difficult. The margins from the front to the back of the field are tiny; you look at qualifying here, and every hundredth is multiple spots for the most part.”

The half-mile concrete Tennessee oval has high banks that place a heavy load on a driver. The laps click off quickly, and there is nowhere to hide. Hendrick Motorsports had initially announced that Justin Allgaier would drive the car this weekend with the hope that Bowman would be ready to return at Kansas Speedway.

But earlier this week, after undergoing a medical evaluation, trying to replicate the symptoms, and then participating in simulator time and pit practice, Bowman was given the all-clear. He has no plans to get out of the car anytime soon now that he’s back behind the wheel, and Hendrick Motorsports is approaching it as a normal race weekend with no backup driver.

“I haven’t qualified a car in a month,” Bowman said. “My expectations coming here are that it’s one of my best tracks, (won) two of the last three poles here, expect to contend for wins. I think the expectations probably change a little bit this week. If we could get out of here with a top 10, top 15, I think on my side of things I’d be happy.

“But I think today will be the hardest part trying to get back up to speed and qualify after sitting on the couch.”

Allgaier drove the No. 48 Chevrolet in the last three races. Anthony Alfredo had the wheel at Phoenix Raceway. Myatt Snider was unexpectedly pulled into action to finish the race at COTA.

“I’ve raced through a lot of injuries, but that was one where I was going to end up running into something or somebody, and the smart thing to do in that case was to get out,” Bowman said. “So, I spent a lot of time with a lot of different doctors and had a lot of different help to go about the best rehab process possible, best practice going forward to get back to where I needed to be to get back in the car.”

There does not appear to be one single point of causation for what Bowman experienced, and he said his recovery process worked through so many variables that it was hard to pinpoint an exact reason. It was likely a multitude of things.

One thing that did cross Bowman’s mind was that his career might be over.

“Honestly, yeah,” he said. “When I got out at COTA, I was like, ‘This is probably it.’ That was what was going through my head. That sucked, and [I'm] thankful that I get another shot at it.”