CONCORD, N.C. — It’s been a month since Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman competitively raced a car.
His last NASCAR Cup Series appearance was at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on April 23, but the last time he was strapped in a cockpit was April 25 at Iowa’s 34 Raceway.
As Bowman fought with Conner Morell for second place in the High Limit Sprint Car Series feature, the drivers made contact and Bowman flipped several times in his No. 55 winged sprint car. He fractured his vertebra during the incident and has missed the last four Cup Series races.
But the No. 48 Chevrolet driver feels ready to make his return this weekend, even if it is for the longest race on the NASCAR schedule — the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
His biggest challenge?
“Trying to understand where my rusty areas are going to be and where I’m still good,” Bowman said. “Until I do it, I don’t know.”
On Tuesday, Bowman made 170 laps in a Next Gen car at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the .625-mile short track that played host to the All-Star Race last weekend, in order to better evaluate what kind of progress he’d made toward recovery.
Following the test, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was considerably more confident moving forward with his Coca-Cola 600 return, though he admits there won’t be much that will translate from one track to the other.
“You can’t simulate Charlotte at North Wilkesboro,” Bowman said. “We had two sets of tires, two hours and a flat race track that’s really slick and doesn’t give you any G-forces (at North Wilkesboro). We have five-and-a-half hours tomorrow night with a lot of G-forces and a ton of grip. It’s about as different as it could possibly get. But I think I’ll be alright.”
With Cup Series practice and qualifying rained out on Saturday evening, Bowman will have zero track time at Charlotte ahead of Sunday’s race, making his laps at North Wilkesboro more valuable.
As far as his expected pain levels, Bowman knows the 600-mile marathon will hurt — he just isn’t sure how much.
“I feel like the little bit of pain that I’m going to be stuck with, I’m going to be stuck with for quite a while,” Bowman said. “This week, versus next week, versus the following week — it kind of is what it is.”
The No. 48 driver anticipates he’ll be quite sore once the adrenaline wears off and he steps out of the car after 600 miles. But Bowman holds fast to the faith that he can make it to the finish line.