Alex Bowman finally returned to racing at the Bristol Motor Speedway, but his return ended rather sooner than he might have expected after he found himself in the bad spot at the bad time. That being said, he wasn’t having the most fantastic of runs in the #48 Hendrick car, which he revealed to the media after his race was over.

Alex Bowman reflects on his disappointing return

“Honestly, I thought we would come here at worst, run like 15th. So, pretty surprised with how bad we were,” Bowman told the media. This was his first race since COTA. He had to miss four races because of the vertigo symptoms he had been getting, but as he was cleared to race at Bristol, it was expected to be a massive return.

Alex Bowman had high hopes, but he wasn’t running in a very good spot. While his teammate, Kyle Larson, had been battling for the race lead, Bowman found himself somewhere in the middle of the pack. And as Shane van Gisbergen spun, the most Bristol moment happened. He ended up collecting John Hunter Nemechek, and Bowman found himself compressed into the wall.

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He could have avoided being a part of this pile-up if he had been in a better position on the track. But again, he seemed to be struggling with pace. But his previous outings on this track haven’t been too good, either, as he reminisced:

“I mean, the last two or three races here. We’ve been on the ball. We both raced this last year. Last year, we had a mechanical failure in the spring, contending for the lead. I think we were running second. And then, you know, in the fall, we were in contention to win that race.”

Bowman hasn’t had an easy time racing in the past seasons. He has been inconsistent and, somehow, the worst-performing Hendrick Motorsports driver. While his teammates have been contending for and winning championships, Bowman has found it hard to pull in a decent finish. And this seems to be reflected in his overall stance towards racing.

Bowman is losing the ‘fun’ in NASCAR

Even though Bowman did not have the best pace upon returning, it wouldn’t be wrong to ask if he had fun driving upon his return, which is exactly what a reporter enquired. While racing is fun for most drivers, it seems that the tough part of Cup racing has taken over Bowman.

“Cup racing is just so hard, and the pressure is so high, and everybody, like everything means so much here that it’s not fun, right? Like, it’s, you’re all in, and everything matters, and when you’re running poorly, as we did, it probably sucks a little bit of fun. Like, winning’s fun, obviously, rolled around 28th, not so fun,” he said.

So far, Alex Bowman has had a terrible start to the 2026 NASCAR season. He crashed out racing at Daytona on the grand season-opener, and finished out of the top-20 at the following race in Atlanta. This was followed by COTA, where he had to retire mid-race due to poor health, and after missing four races, his return to Bristol ended rather uneventfully.

This is understandably a tough phase for Bowman. At the same time, he might have to start worrying about his seat with the team. Even though Rick Hendrick might make an exception for a few races this season, the #48 team will have to get back to winning ways sooner than later.