Why Denny Hamlin Bets on Alex Bowman to Have Bounce Back Season After 2023 NASCAR Disaster

Driving in NASCAR’s top-tier series often takes a heavy toll on the body of the drivers. And perhaps nobody knows that better than Denny Hamlin. It’s been just a decade since the JGR driver popped his back after crashing out during the 2013 Auto Club 400. Hence, he knows what it takes to get in the car and drive with an injury.

Hendrick Motorsports driver, Alex Bowman too, suffered a similar injury in his back in April last year while driving in a Sprint Car race. Hamlin felt that judging Bowman’s 2023 season based solely on his performance post-injury wouldn’t be fair. “It was probably very likely he was not a 100% in his car control feel when he came back,” admitted Hamlin. “I think that he has a bounce back season. I think he makes the playoffs. I think he probably wins a race…certainly, I would put him down as winning a race.”

Despite recording six top-10s in the first 10 races of the previous season, Bowman wasn’t able to register anything better than merely four top-10s in his last 22 attempts. Until the season of mishap, Bowman had not missed the playoffs even once since 2018. Nevertheless, when a veteran NASCAR driver like Hamlin roots for someone, that someone ought to be good at his game.

Moreover, it’s not just the JGR driver who expects Bowman to bounce back this year. Bowman drives for perhaps the winningest team in NASCAR and that certainly comes with expectations from both his team and the fans. Thankfully, Hamlin sounded confident that Bowman would win a race or two this year. “I think he needs a little bit bigger sample size , let him prove himself this year and bounce back,” he added.

Alex Bowman to dial down on non-NASCAR events to ensure a safe Cup ride

While suffering from the consequences of his injury that sidelined him from the entire season, Bowman perhaps felt like he shouldn’t have taken the risk of getting involved in the winged-car, non-NASCAR event. He took to SiriusXM NASCAR radio and explained why that would never happen again.

“I can’t afford to miss more races, I need to be in the car every week,” he said. “Look at what it did to us this year, we go from being extremely strong every week to a really tough rest of the year. I don’t need to do that again so I won’t be in a winged Sprint Car for the foreseeable future.”

For Bowman, his day job is extremely important. And giving that up just for fun isn’t something he will be doing this year. “My job on Sunday is just super important to me and unfortunately this year I was doing something for fun that greatly took away from what I do on Sundays and I’m going to avoid that,” he stated.

It looks like the #48 driver’s Sprint Car endeavors will have to wait until he is done racing in the Cup Series unlike his teammate Kyle Larson, who seems to dive deeper every day into the sport ever since the start of his High Limit Sprint Car Series.