| Full Name | Alex Bowman |
| Date of Birth | April 25, 1993 |
| Nationality | American |
| Height | 6'1" |
| Role | Driver |
Alex Bowman is a NASCAR Cup Series driver for Hendrick Motorsports and will be entering his fourth full-time season and first behind the wheel of the No. 48 previously driven by the now-retired Jimmie Johnson. It is not the first time he has replaced a legend.
Bowman first climbed into a racing machine in 2000 at the age of seven in quarter midgets, winning nine championships. By 2008, he won the United States Auto Club (USAC) title and the California Dirt Focus Midget championship with eleven victories. The next season he was victorious in the inaugural DMS Driver Challenge, which qualified him to make starts in the USAC National and Western Midgets. He was named Rookie of the Year in the National Midgets.
Bowman was hand-picked by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to replace him when he was out of action due to a concussion in 2016 and found himself as the full-time replacement two years later. Johnson has moved over to the NTT IndyCar Series, while Earnhardt is an analyst for NASCAR coverage with NBC Sports.
Nicknamed Bowman the Showman, there is no denying that stepping into the car of a seven-time champion will not be easy. He said at the time of the announcement that he has been preparing for this all his life.
Bowman’s numbers don’t exactly jump off the page. He has two career victories, one in each of the last two seasons to qualify for the playoffs. That may not appear to be good enough for an organization like HMS, but Bowman has been competitive most of his starts, only to be done in by circumstances that weren’t necessarily in his control.
In his first Cup Series season, he ran for a mostly underfunded team, BK Racing, and followed that up with a year with Tommy Baldwin. He had little to show for his efforts. Despite that, Earnhardt saw something others did not, and that is how he was named to take over his car while recuperating. Bowman posted three top-tens in ten races, and it opened some eyes as to what he could do in a well-financed team. It also didn’t hurt that he was part of a four-car team.
Oddly, Bowman could not find a full-time seat in 2017, getting two starts in Xfinity (a win and two top-tens) and one in Trucks with a top-ten. Then Earnhardt called it a career, and he had finally found a home with HMS ever since.
2008 USAC Speed2 National Midget Champion
2008 USAC Speed2 California Dirt Midget Champion
2009 USAC National Midget Championship Rookie of the Year
2011 K&N Pro Series East Rookie of the Year
2012 ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year
2018, 2021 Daytona 500 Pole Winner
Alex Michael Bowman was born on April 25, 1993 (now 27) in Tucson, Arizona, living now in Concord, NC, the same town as Charlotte Motor Speedway. He is married to Janice Goss [Bowman], the daughter of former Aric Almirola Xfinity crew chief in the Xfinity Series. His hobbies include working on cars, quarter midgets, spending time at home, and playing with his dogs. He loves the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 street machine.
