There are comebacks… and then there’s this.
The announcement this week that Alex Bowman would return after missing four NASCAR Cup races wasn’t exactly shocking. Drivers, as a species, are not known for their patience. Tell them they’re medically cleared and they’ll be halfway to the car before you’ve finished the sentence.
But Bristol? Really?
Bristol Motor Speedway is less a racetrack and more a concrete cereal bowl designed by someone who clearly thought gravity was optional. The banking is absurd, the speeds are relentless, and the G-forces hit you like a bar fight you didn’t see coming. This is not where you ease yourself back in after vertigo. This is where you go if you want to test whether your inner ear has fully signed the waiver.
So naturally, Bowman showed up.
Why?
“Because they said I could,” he said Saturday with a smile. “I’m a race car driver, so you tell me I’m clear and I’m going to go do it. Yeah, it’s probably the worst place possible to come back to, I think, not just from it’s physical, but it’s a track that is extremely difficult. The margins from the front to the back of the field are tiny.”
Of course they are. At Bristol, the difference between a hero and a hood ornament is roughly half a heartbeat.
Bowman rolled off 27th on Sunday, which at Bristol is a bit like starting a knife fight already slightly outnumbered. And before he could even begin to sort things out, the universe did what the universe often does at Bristol—it threw a spinning car into the equation and waited for the chaos.
On lap 160, Shane van Gisbergen got loose entering Turn 3, turned sideways like a shopping cart with a bad wheel, and swept up John Hunter Nemechek and Bowman in the process. Just like that, three driver’s days were ruined in one untidy moment. SVG was done. Bowman, thanks to a broken toe link, was done. And the No. 48 Chevrolet was left looking like it had lost an argument with a wall.
He was credited with 35th in a 37-car field. Not exactly the triumphant return you’d script in Hollywood.
“I don’t know if we kind of just misjudged it, being in Group A (in practice). I thought we were OK in practice, but to start the race, we were in trouble. It’s a bummer that we didn’t get a chance to work on it. I know Blake (Harris, crew chief) and this No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team would have liked some pit stops to try and make the car better and get going back in the right direction. We were just struggling, and then got caught up in somebody else’s mess. I hate it for this team, but we’ll move onto the next one (at Kansas Speedway).”
That, in a nutshell, is Bristol. You can prepare, you can plan, you can convince yourself you’ve got a decent car—and then someone else’s bad afternoon becomes your catastrophe.
As for how Bowman actually felt back in the car after everything?
“I felt good. I’m frustrated right now, right? Bristol (Motor Speedway) is one of my favorite racetracks and we just missed it. At the same time, it’s nice to be back in the racecar. I appreciate everyone’s support and definitely thankful to be back.”
Which is the strange duality of racing drivers. Equal parts gratitude and irritation. Happy to be back, furious about how it went.
And then there’s the bigger picture, the part that actually matters if this season is going to resemble something other than a slow-motion stumble.
“We really need one good week to start getting the ball rolling in the right direction again. Honestly, I thought this could be a really good one for us, even after qualifying. I think this is a good place for us, historically, but we just didn’t have it today. Hopefully we can get things pointed in the right direction next weekend at Kansas (Speedway).”
That’s the thing about momentum in NASCAR—it doesn’t arrive politely. It has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into existence.
Bristol was never going to be gentle. It never is. For Bowman, it wasn’t a triumphant return or a disaster of his own making. It was something far more typical for this place: brief, bruising, and over before it really had a chance to begin.
Kansas, one suspects, will be a bit less… violent.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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