By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer

For the first time since Circuit of the Americas on March 1, Alex Bowman will pilot the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Following a dramatic bout with vertigo late in the COTA race, Bowman outlined his experience that led to him dropping out of the race early.

“Obviously COTA wasn’t a lot of fun for me,” Bowman said Saturday at Bristol. “Everything was fine until it wasn’t, obviously, in the car; dizziness, throwing up on myself, spinning, kind of all of the things.

“It wasn’t fun, and I was not pumped that I had to get out. Obviously, I’ve raced through a lot of injuries, but was one where I was going to end up running into something or somebody, and the smart thing to do in that case was to get out.”

That ended up being his last race to date, as Anthony and Alfredo substituted his place in the No. 48 the last four races. In the meantime, Bowman underwent numerous driving tests with mixed results until this week when the vertigo symptoms subsided and doctors allowed Bowman to return to racing.

“I spent a lot of time with a lot of different doctors and had a lot of different help to go about the best rehab process possible,” he said. “It was just a multitude of different things that we had to work through to get me back feeling well.

“The biggest thing with vertigo is just trying to find what was causing everything, why it happened and what the right path going forward was. So there was definitely, for me, concern there. But at the same time, just trying to get back feeling well enough to do life.”

Bowman doubted he would ever return to racing.

“When I got out at COTA, I was like, ‘this is probably it,'” he said. “That was what was going through my head. So, yeah, that sucked, and I’m thankful that I got another shot at it.

“Fortunately, I had a lot of really great people around me that helped me a ton. The boss flew me around to different places that I needed to be and kind of all the things that we needed to do to give me the best help that we could get, and now, I’m feeling really good. I’m thankful to be back feeling well.”

Jeff Andrews, President and General Manager of Hendrick Motorsports, reassured that the team is fully committed to Bowman and keeping the No. 48 his.

“Alex Bowman has always been the driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, and we never had questions about whose seat that was,” Andrews said. “I think we said that early on, that we would follow 100% of the medical guidelines that we were given, and then plan Alex’s return when it was medically cleared.

“For us, Alex is part of our team. He’s a key teammate for us and has been an integral part of our company for quite some time, so we were willing to do what we needed to do to wait for him and get him back, and at the right time.”

Bowman’s return race comes at one of the sport’s most daunting circuits of Bristol, one that challenges the drivers mentally and physically by ripping 15-second laps in a half-mile.

“It’s probably the worst place possible to come back to,” he said about Bristol. “I think not just from it’s physical, but it’s a track that is extremely difficult. The margins from the front to the back of the field are tiny.

“You look at qualifying here, and every hundredth is multiple spots. I haven’t qualified a car in a month. I’m trying to get back up to speed.

“My expectations coming here, it’s one of my best tracks; two of the last three poles here, expect to contend for wins. I think expectations probably change a little bit this week. You know, if we could get out of here with a top 10, top 15, I think, on my side of things, I’d be happy. But I think today will be the hardest part, just getting back up to speed and trying to qualify after sitting on the couch.”