Alex Bowman will be the driver behind the wheel of the No. 48 Ally Hendrick Motorsports entry through at least the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, as it was announced on Friday that the 28-year old racer has signed a two-year contract extension.
Ally, which is the title sponsor of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, released video of the official announcement of Bowman’s contract extension at Hendrick Motorsports to their social media channels.
What a way to kick off #Ally400 weekend! Cheers to two more years, @Alex_Bowman! We are so excited to continue to be your ally! pic.twitter.com/PWkDnHCr3A
— Ally Racing (@allyracing) June 18, 2021
“Super thankful for the opportunity,” Bowman said in the video after confetti cannons sounded following the announcement of his contract extension. “It’s been a lot of fun working with you guys and proud to get to continue to drive the Ally No. 48 car.”
Bowman, a native of Arizona, has four-career NASCAR Cup Series wins — two of which have come this season. He sits 11th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after 16 races in 2021.
The current driver of the No. 48 machine, got his Hendrick Motorsports start driving the No. 88 entry in place of an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016. After spending the 2017 season with Hendrick Motorsports as their simulator driver, Bowman moved to full-time with the team in the No. 88 for the 2018 season following the retirement of Earnhardt Jr.
Following the retirement of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion after the 2020 season, Bowman’s No. 88 team was renumbered to the No. 48.
Bowman has won at least one race in each of the last three seasons, and he has made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in all four seasons that he has driven full-time for Hendrick Motorsports.
The future of the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series driver lineup appears to be secure with Bowman, 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron making up one of the most talented lineups of any team in the sport.
2 Responses
Toby, is there any consistency to the time of year that driver’s and owner’s discuss renewing contracts? As I read this, Bowman still had the rest of this season under contract to Henricks……..it would seem to me that dealing with all the legalities would be less pressure during the off season (even tho’ the off season is so much shorter now). Also, sometimes it is not clear the start date of the new contract, so fans are thinking Nov of ’23, but Owners are thinking June of ’23……..I had this issue with Budweiser information sponsoring Dale Jr way back when. I was told 10 year contract, but it really wasn’t thru’s 2010…..where can that info be found?
Very rarely are contracts in Cup decided in the offseason. With all of the moving pieces (sponsorship, personnel and others), most teams like to button those things up around mid-season to just before the Playoffs start.
The Bowman contract is through the end of the 2023 season.
As for the Budweiser contract with Dale Jr., it was a 10-year deal from 2000 to 2010, but when Earnhardt left DEI, he moved to Hendrick Motorsports, which had been burned by Budweiser leaving them following the 1999 season. As such, Hendrick basically vetoed the sponsorship deal in favor of having Pepsico and National Guard sponsor the 88 instead.