Alex Bowman’s time with Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t been the best this year. With the No. 48 driver sitting 32nd in points and 156 outside the Chase cutoff at the halfway mark of the regular season, Bowman’s struggles in the Cup Series have not stopped. It is perhaps fitting, then, that the team made a late call, as Nashville would have added to all that is on his plate already.

JR Motorsports has had quite a few Hendrick drivers to pilot their #88 Chevy in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series this season. And the original arrangement was structured from the start of 2026: Caruth handles 23 of the 33 races as the primary driver, with the remaining 10 split between the four HMS Cup drivers (Byron and Larson assigned three starts each, Bowman and Elliott two apiece).

However, Kyle Larson is now set to replace Alex Bowman in the upcoming race at Nashville. This also marks the second time Larson steps into his teammate’s seat, as he had subbed in after Bowman missed his first NOAPS start of the season at Darlington because of vertigo.

As for Bowman’s overall NOAPS numbers – while he ran full-time for just one season back in 2013, his later part-time runs, notably with JR Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, and Chip Ganassi Racing, were extremely impressive. He also clinched his only race win with the latter in 2017. The last time he ran the series was back in 2025, where he fell short of a victory with a second-place finish at Phoenix.

No official reason has been given for the change, though with Bowman still listed for Sunday’s Cup race, health doesn’t appear to be the jumping concern. It could simply be a mutual decision to keep his focus where it matters most right now, on the Cup points grind, especially after having missed multiple races in three of five seasons since 2022.

Five missed races in 2022 after a concussion, three in 2023 after a sprint car crash, and then four this season after being diagnosed with vertigo. And the results lately have done nothing to bring down the concern, as Bowman kicked off the season with a 40th-place finish at Daytona and had recorded only two top tens before a 25 at Watkins Glen and a 17 at Charlotte ruined his momentum.

Clearly, Bowman could use some consistency in the Cup scene, and the decision to pull out of the Nashville race makes all the more sense when one considers that Bowman has had to deal with his dog Finn being diagnosed with cancer this week, making for an already difficult time off the track.

Still, even with the many hardships Bowman has had to face, the rumors have kept growing, with one latest incident adding fuel to the fire.

NASCAR insider suggests an alternative option for Alex Bowman in 2027

Bowman wasn’t having the best weekend while running the Coca-Cola 600 last weekend, and things turned worse after he faced some issues with the car. This soon turned into a short radio meltdown.

“Kevin, just tell me what Blake said. I did hear Blake. I did not break s—. The sh—- a– parts broke,” Bowman asked his spotter, Kevin Hamlin, during the race.

“Yeah, maybe we broke it? I don’t know,” Kevin replied.

Bowman now seems to be feeling the pressure and the frustration with his ride all at the same time. And considering that he has dedicated a decade to the team but with little success when compared to his teammates, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he were to look for other options in the garage, and insider Bob Pockrass seems to have a strong one in mind.

Writing for FOX, Pockrass claimed that Spire Motorsports might require a stronger driver in their lineup. The team has already offered Carson Hocevar a massive extension that is said to go beyond 2030, but that is not the case with its remaining lineup.

Michael McDowell has been struggling within the team, not making enough impressions at the front of the field. Meanwhile, at Hendrick Motorsports, the team might also begin eyeing better drivers to take hold of the #48 Chevy to extract the most out of what the team provides.

For now, though, Bowman’s focus is Sunday’s Cup race at Nashville, where one strong result is about the only thing that can shift the narrative.