Besides driving the No. 48 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports, Alex Bowman also cherishes the role of being a team owner, even though it is in dirt track racing. He owns Alex Bowman Racing, a dirt-track operation that fields entries in Midget and Sprint car competition, including the Chili Bowl Nationals.
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Bowman formed the team as an outlet for his interest in dirt racing, and across its lifespan, the program has placed multiple cars and established drivers in prominent dirt events. This season, Bowman again entered four cars at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Under the ABR banner, Bowman has continued to support drivers within the dirt racing ranks, including CJ Leary, Hunter Schuerenberg, and Jake Swanson, among others. Despite the demands of ownership, Bowman has remained committed to the role, embracing the responsibilities that come with running a team.
While appearing on the HOT ROD Pod podcast, Bowman spoke about his experience as a team owner and the realities that accompany it. He said, “Still ended up doing all the work and paying all the bills and having none of the fun, and I was like, ‘This sucks.’ We’ve had some successful years (in Chili Bowl).”
“Had some years where my finances fly through the air and you flip over and over, and it’s like dollar signs falling off the car as it’s flipping. They’ve hurt a little bit, but yeah, it’s been a really fun thing for me to get to do.”
Bowman also talked about his hands-on approach to preparing the cars, explaining the scope of his involvement away from the driver’s seat. He added, “Honestly, like I do 90% of the prep work on those cars myself. One thing I’m not good at is the fabrication side of things. Like, I’m not patient enough, and I’m not good enough to do it at a level that I’m happy with.”
“I have a lot of great friends at HMS that help me on the fab side of things, but beyond that, I’m doing all the prep work myself and working on them myself at the racetrack crew chiefing them, and it’s a lot of fun,” he confessed.
Bowman shrank the Sprint car branch of his program after a crash in a 410 Sprint car during 2023 left him with a compression fracture in his back. That incident altered the direction of the operation.
By late 2025, Alex Bowman Racing sold its Sprint car inventory, and the team’s “LI55” Sprint car did not appear during further events. But the decision was a clear shift in his focus, as he didn’t retreat from dirt racing altogether. He stepped away from driving dirt cars, choosing instead to center on his full-time role with Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series.
But this year, Bowman’s participation as an owner put him among the list of active NASCAR Cup Series drivers who entered cars in the Chili Bowl this year. That list included Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Kyle Busch, alongside the #48 HMS driver.
Besides NASCAR drivers, even crew chiefs showed interest in the ownership of sprint car teams. For instance, Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Blake Harris served as the car owner for Jesse Love during this year’s Chili Bowl.
