Alex Bowman Confesses Career-Shortening Consequences of His Back-Breaking Injury That Derailed 2023 Season

The 2023 season was an underwhelming experience for Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman. While the numbers looked bleak for the driver throughout the 2023 season, the issue was not related to the driver’s performance or the car. Instead, it was his sprint car racing passion that sparked his fall from grace.

Bowman, like his teammates and other drivers, is passionate about racing beyond the borders of NASCAR. However, a mid-season Sprint car injury proved detrimental to his Cup Series aspirations for the season, causing him to miss out on three-point races and undergoing a treacherous recovery phase. While he is looking fit and ready for the 2024 season, he had to endure pain and agony last season to recover from a fractured vertebra.

Bowman suffered a fractured vertebra while competing in Kyle Larson’s High Limit Racing series in Burlington. Despite recovering from the incident and missing out on three races, Bowman just could not get his mojo back. A back injury for any driver or athlete could be career-threatening, but luckily for him, it was just a fracture. However, the recovery process was not a smooth transition for Bowman.

While speaking to Bob Pockrass from FOX, he revealed his struggles coping with the injured back and how it affected his daily life. “Honestly, it wasn’t awful unless you moved around. Sneezing sucked as that was one of those wrong moments. Yeah, just didn’t feel good by any means.”

It is important to note that, even with the proper care and a good recovery process, getting back to 100 percent fitness is an uphill climb. And this is what Bowman feels. “I don’t think it’s ever going to be 100 percent. I definitely feel way better now than I did at that point. Really when I landed it, sounded that crunch at chiropractor, and I was like maybe I popped my back and I was a little wrong on that one.”

As far as his comeback is concerned, Bowman looks well on track to make amends for last season’s disappointment. However, a controversial call by NASCAR officials at the Daytona 500 failed to script a good comeback story for the HMS driver.

Alex Bowman shares his heartbreaking experience of losing out on the Daytona 500 win

The finish at Daytona International Speedway during the first points race of the season was a rather puzzling prospect for the community to take in. FOX even had to provide aerial footage to justify their decision to crown William Byron as the winner of the race. However, his teammate and driver of the No. 48 HMS car had a contrasting opinion. He was agonizingly close to winning his maiden Daytona 500, but he had to settle for second place.

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Sharing his thoughts on the controversial call, Bowman, while speaking at DJD, said, “I mean I knew I was in front of him (Byron) when the yellow light on the track came on. To be honest, I felt like…They waited a long time to throw the yellow light. I think that’s the reason that wasn’t more bummed about it than I was like to lose the Daytona 500 by 6000th of a second or whatever. It was definitely heartbreaking, but they could have thrown the caution probably a bit earlier and made that margin bigger, right?”

The only good part about Alex Bowman’s disappointments at Daytona is that he has an entire season to himself to prove his mettle and caliber as a race car driver. Moreover, the bigger picture for him would be to avoid the mistakes of last season and secure the playoff spot as early as possible with a win.