A rumor floating around the NASCAR Cup Series garage the past two weeks is that Alex Bowman could soon be replaced at the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 by Justin Haley and that he could end up at the Spire Motorsports No. 7 instead.
Bowman says he hasn’t been told that, and that the rumors are loud enough that he has asked.
“Yeah, that rumor has certainly been annoying,” Bowman said. “Obviously, I have a contract through the end of ’26 and all I can tell you is what my bosses have told me and that is there are no plans to change anything.
“So, rumors are just rumors and hopefully they get their announcements done. My rumor is hot obviously, and as far as I know, I’m driving the 48 next year and nothing is changing.”
Bowman has just two wins since the start of the 2022 season, albeit with the caveat that he has missed races due to a concussion and a broken back during that period too. It’s also true that the No. 48 is the least successful of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars and that this is an important playoff run coming up for Bowman.
He says he trusts his bosses at Hendrick Motorsports and he has no reason to take the rumors at face value.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Bowman said. “You know, I trust my bosses and that’s what they’ve told me. So, yeah, other than that, I’m just focus on trying to be strong over the next 10 weeks.”
The narrative out there is that Bowman may have to have a strong playoff run to save his seat but the veteran driver says he really doesn’t believe that is the case.
“Every conversation I’ve had with my bosses is that it is an unfortunate rumor that we are really not even a part of which makes it difficult, right,” Bowman said. “I don’t think there are any plans or anything on the Hendrick Motorsports side and I think the rumors have started on the other side of things.
“Hopefully when they get their announcement on what the other side of that rumor, then it will go away for me for sure.”
Hendrick Motorsports and Spire Motorsports have a technical alliance so the logical part of that rumor is that Bowman could go there, paired with new crew chief hire Rodney Childers, and even take the Ally Financial sponsorship with him while Haley gets a marquee ride after a successful stint at Rick Ware Racing.
“I mean, certainly that’s a rumor that I’ve heard for a month, right,” Bowman said. “It got to the point where I picked up the phone, called everybody and they said ‘absolutely not,’ so that’s really all I have to go on.
“I don’t have a reason to believe anything other than that. There’s no, ‘oh, you need to do this to keep your job.’ Like, it’s ‘absolutely not, everything’s fine.’ So, beyond that, like we need to run better. It’s been a miserable month and we haven’t executed on a high level at all, so we need to go run better the next 10 weeks.
“But we need to do that for us and our playoff run, and for Ally and the 48 car. It’s not ‘we have to do this to keep your job.’ I’m not worried about that at all.”