Alex Bowman is standing tall in defense of his post at Hendrick Motorsports, as a barrage of rumors circulating social media this week have suggested the No. 48 could have a new driver in 2025.
The 31-year-old driver has been competing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for the championship-winning organization since 2018, and in February 2023, signed a multi-year extension to remain with the team through at least 2026.
Bowman was asked about his plans for the 2025 season during Wednesday’s Playoff Media Day, where the Tucson, Arizona-native looked somewhat confused, before saying those rumors have “certainly been annoying”.
“My contract is through the end of 2026 and all I can tell you is what my bosses have told me,” Bowman said Wednesday. “And that’s that there are no plans to change anything. Rumors are just rumors.”
“Hopefully they will get their announcements done, so my rumors stop, and yeah, as far as I know, I’m driving the No. 48 next year, and nothing is changing.”
In speaking further with the media, Bowman adds that there is absolutely no reason for him to be skeptical of the information he’s received by those higher up in the Hendrick Motorsports ecosystem than he is.
“Every conversation I’ve had with my bosses is it’s an unfortunate rumor, and it’s rumors that we’re not even really a part of, which makes it difficult. Like, I don’t think there are any plans on the [Hendrick Motorsports] side and I think the rumors have started on the other side of things.”
Bowman is an eight-time NASCAR Cup Series winner, all of which have come with Hendrick Motorsports in the last six seasons. After missing the post-season in 2023, after missing three races for a back injury, the driver of the No. 48 is back for his sixth post-season appearance.
However, in the lead-up to the post-season, Bowman said he’d been hearing these rumors on repeat, eventually getting to the point where he picked up the phone and went on a mission to debunk them himself.
“That’s a rumor that I’ve heard for like a month and it got to the point where I picked up the phone and called everybody, and everybody said absolutely not. That’s really all I have to go on, and I don’t have a reason to believe anything other than that.”
Bowman, like his other three teammates from Hendrick Motorsports, is going to be fighting for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, after a victory at the Chicago Street Course qualified him for the NASCAR Playoffs, which start Sunday at Atlanta.
“We need to go run better, it’s been a miserable month and we haven’t executed on a high level at all, so we need to go run better the next 10 weeks, but we need to do that for us, and our playoff run and Ally and the No. 48 car, there’s no like ‘You need to do this to keep your job’, and as far as I know, I’m not worried about that at all.”
The Hendrick Motorsports driver will go into one of the toughest post-season rounds in history trying to be consistent, and overcome the diversion that has been this splattering of rumors.
