Alex Bowman will sit out this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event, the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as he continues to recover from a vertigo diagnosis that he received following the event at Circuit of the Americas a few weeks ago. This will mark the second consecutive race that Bowman has missed.
Justin Allgaier, who won last weekend’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Phoenix Raceway, will slide behind the wheel of the No. 48 Chevrolet in place of Bowman this weekend.
The 32-year-old Bowman first started experiencing vertigo symptoms from inside the car during the event at Circuit of the Americas on March 1. As the symptoms worsened late in the race, Bowman had to exit the car on Lap 71, and Myatt Snider, a part-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver, finished out the race for Bowman and the No. 48 team.
As Bowman wasn’t medically cleared for last weekend’s event at Phoenix, Anthony Alfredo, the simulator driver for Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports, filled in.
While Bowman continues to seek medical clearance to return to the track, Hendrick Motorsports notes that Bowman has put in a lot of work to regain medical clearance and that he continues to work closely with his medical team.
“Alex continues to work closely with doctors toward being medically cleared, but he’s still experiencing some lingering symptoms,” said Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports. “He’s put a lot into the recovery process, and we will continue to support him every step of the way. Our priority remains making sure Alex is fully ready before returning to the race car.”
Allgaier, 39, competed in the season-opening Daytona 500 for JR Motorsports and led three laps in the race before he crashed out of the event on Lap 124. In 84 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, Allgaier has just two top-10 finishes, but the bulk of his starts came for the fledgling HScott Motorsports team in full-time campaigns in 2014 and 2015.
The racer has compiled 29 career victories in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, including a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last March, and he was the 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion.
Filling in for Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who was unable to make it to Charlotte Motor Speedway from Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the start of the Coca-Cola 600 in 2024, Allgaier started from the rear of the field and worked his way up to 13th when rain and lightning forced an early end to the 400-lap contest after 249 laps were completed.
