On the cusp of a full recovery from a back injury that hampered his results last year, Alex Bowman hopes for a bright future as he regains his ability to feel his car on the track.
Bowman agreed to a three-year contract extension through 2026 in mid-February last year and then missed four weeks of the NASCAR Cup season after fracturing a vertebra in an April 25 sprint car crash in Iowa. He returned for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte after testing at North Wilkesboro and seeing how his body reacted.
“When I was recovering right afterwards, it really was more just trying to not hurt (my back) or piss it off, I guess,” Bowman told NBC Sports after the season. “…When I tested at North Wilkesboro and felt pretty good, that was good.
“Honestly, the hardest part was getting in and out of the race car. That was super painful. Being in the race car wasn’t that bad. So the 600 was totally fine. And then I went to get out, couldn’t hardly get out of the car.”
Denny Hamlin knows the pain that Bowman felt last season, as well as the toll it took, despite driving for a different organization. Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in 2013 after a crash at California Speedway. He also missed four races in the No. 11 and he struggled after returning.
The two back injuries were not identical. The recovery processes and timelines were similar. Hamlin and Bowman both needed rest early before turning their attention to their respective cores.
Hamlin’s own experiences helped him better empathize with his fellow driver, one with whom he had a memorable run-in battling for a 2021 win at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin is pulling for a comeback by Bowman but knows well that the recovery is lengthy.
“Obviously, we go through a lot of spine load as it is sitting in that car,” Hamlin told NBC Sports. “Our cars are very, very stiff, and we don’t have much shock so we’re kind of really pushing down on our spine to begin with.”
Like Bowman last season, Hamlin did not simply get back in the car in 2013 and immediately begin contending for wins. He dealt with considerable pain as he recovered. Hamlin lost the ability to fully feel the intricate movements of the car, which is crucial to achieving success on the track regardless of era.
“When (fans) see us go around the racetrack, you can see it, and it looks like the car is just planted to the track,” Hamlin said. “It’s not flat. You slow it down in slow-mo and you can see that we’re constantly driving the car on the edge or sliding it, right?
“So if you don’t have the feel or that level in your system, or in your bottom end that tells you when your car is about to slide, you’re not able to correct in time.”
The results for Bowman and Hamlin after their injuries are indicative of lacking that feel.
After opening last season with six top 10s in the first seven races, Bowman had only four top 10s in the 22 races after returning from his injury.
Hamlin sustained the compression fracture in March 2013. He did not fully regain his ability to feel the car until the end of the season. He had only seven top-10 finishes in the final 27 races and did not win until the season finale at Homestead in November.
“It took me six to eight months for my level to recalibrate because I’d lost so much feel when I fractured my vertebrae,” Hamlin said. “So it eventually came back, but it just really took a lot of time for it to come back to where I thought it was before the injury.”
Similarly, Bowman did not have an easy journey back to full health. He was able to get back to training within a couple of weeks of his crash but had to make some significant changes to the routine. The early focus was pain tolerance.
“I kind of started off with these air bands that kind of cut off circulation and make it harder to train with low weights,” Bowman said. “…The doctor was pretty adamant that I couldn’t hurt it any worse than it was already hurt. It was just going to be about managing the pain.”
The process was not always enjoyable, but Bowman was able to continue making progress as the season continued. He still had days where his back was stiff, and he wasn’t at 100 percent.
What significantly helped Bowman in his recovery was his foundation, a regime of strength training and endurance work implemented by fitness guru Josh Wise. Bowman is one of the drivers in the Chevrolet pipeline who regularly works with Wise.
Bowman was able to build upon his previous work in the gym as he recovered instead of completely starting over. He worked on mobility early in his recovery as he adapted to the pain threshold. He added in bodyweight squats with the air bands as he grew more comfortable and increased his frequency of training.
Bowman had moments where he dealt with pain. The first week after his crash, he was limited to rolling around his shop in an office chair. Bowman barely could walk after his first race back, the Coca-Cola 600 that lasted four hours and 58 minutes.
He continued to make progress as he made more starts, though.
“I kind of fell off a little bit, obviously, when I got hurt,” Bowman said. “And I never got back to all the way where I was before I got hurt.
“I mean, maybe at the end of the season, I felt like I was back there but it just took me longer than I would have wanted. Not all of that was injury. Some of it was just life getting in the way of spending much time on (recovery).”
Bowman has continued to see the results of this work in the gym and behind the wheel as he has worked his way back to full strength. He also has seen another benefit of prioritizing health and working on this foundation – his bouts with illness are few and far between.
“Alex has the resources that he has with Team Chevy or Josh Wise or whatever,” Hamlin said. “I mean, it’s top-notch. People within Hendrick Motorsports have got an amazing facility there that they train their pit crews and all that.”
Having a strong foundation doesn’t mean there weren’t bad days even after Bowman returned to Cup action. He struggled at times to get in and out of the No. 48 Chevrolet. He dealt with pain throughout the season and ended the year as the lowest-finishing driver at Hendrick Motorsports.
There were times when Bowman felt like his recovery was taking longer than it should have.
There were two things that helped him push through the darker days. The first was the early season progress with crew chief Blake Harris. They had run well and put themselves in contention for a playoff spot. Bowman had the goal of following up that strong start after his return.
The other source of motivation was the manner in which Bowman sustained the injury.
“I think I got like a little extra motivation just knowing that I did it to myself in a situation I didn’t have to be in,” Bowman said.
“Sprint car racing was something I wanted to do, but I was doing it for me, right? So I was going and having fun and did it to myself, and I think that was like, ‘Man, I gotta get back for Mr. (Hendrick) and for Jeff (Gordon) and everybody at HMS.”
Bowman made it back to his Cup car and closed out the season without any setbacks. Now he continues to prepare for 2024 while taking steps to prevent future issues.
This is a process that may not necessarily end based on Hamlin’s own experiences. Hamlin, who had a degenerative disk condition prior to the injury, continues to add at least two Pilates sessions each week to his training schedule. This ensures that his core is strong enough to handle the rigors of Cup racing as well as his life outside of the car.
“It’s not just comfort for racing, it’s been comfort for my daily life,” Hamlin said. “I have kids, and you find out pretty quickly, man, it hurts to bend over. It hurts to get up in the morning. It hurts to do this and that and the other. I really kind of put a focus and emphasis on trying to do whatever I could to alleviate back pain.”
Bowman isn’t fully back to where he wants to be nearly eight months after his crash. He isn’t going heavy in the gym. He’s playing it careful due to a past disk injury of his own and some concern about any potential setbacks.
Bowman can still go about his daily life and train for the season with very little pain as he moves closer to certain milestones.
“I think once I’m able to front squat heavy weight again, I’ll be happy,” Bowman said.
Bowman expects to be fully healthy and ready to compete for wins once again in 2024. He will have the feel he needs in the car and another full offseason working with Harris and the No. 48 team.
Hamlin expects the same. He saw Bowman having one of his best seasons prior to the injury and saw the effects of the back injury upon Bowman’s return to the field.
Based on Hamlin’s own experience back in 2013, he sees a scenario where Bowman (who had four consecutive winning seasons and seven victories from 2019-22 before a winless ’23) is running well once again in 2024. After all, Hamlin made the Championship 4 in his comeback season and has done so three other times since.
“I am confident in Alex’s ability to get back where he was, and I think that this offseason will probably create an opportunity for him to get healthy,” Hamlin said.
“Looking at the timeline of when he had his accident, the start of the season is about when that timeline starts to turn where he probably will start feeling the slips and angles of the car that he once did before. So it’s a restart, refresh and, certainly, both physically and mentally, will be a great reset.”