Bowman & Hendrick Motorsports Agree to Contract Extention

Hendrick Motorsports and driver Alex Bowman agreed to extend their partnership with a multi-year contract extension announced Friday.

The two-year extension will keep Bowman in Rick Hendrick’s No. 48 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series through 2023, syncing with Ally Financial’s contract as the car’s primary sponsor for that term. The announcement comes as NASCAR’s national series arrives at Nashville Superspeedway, where the banking company is the title sponsor for the Cup Series’ first race at the 1.33-mile track — Sunday’s Ally 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

Bowman, who moved into the No. 48 Chevrolet after seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson’s retirement, has been driving for the organization since 2016 when he and Jeff Gordon filled in for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Bowman took over the No. 88 Chevrolet ride upon Dale Jr.’s retirement after the 2017 season and won the 2018 Daytona 500 pole. Bowman won his first race for Hendrick Motorsports in 2019 at Chicagoland Speedway and has followed up with victories at Auto Club Speedway in 2020 and Richmond Raceway and Dover International Speedway in 2021. The wins at Richmond and Dover came in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet.

Car owner Rick Hendrick addressed Bowman’s contract status after the No. 48 team’s victory at Dover, saying, “We’ve already started. It should be done any time. We want Alex there. He wants to be there. It’s kind of at this point just a formality.”

In October 2019, Ally added three years to its sponsorship of the No. 48 team, which fielded entries for Johnson at the time. With Friday’s announcement, the agreements for driver, team and sponsor are now concurrent through the 2023 season.

Before joining Hendrick Motorsports, Bowman drove for BK Racing in 2014 and Tommy Baldwin Racing in 2015. During those two seasons, Bowman’s best finish was 13th place in the 2014 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Bowman also has a win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series that came in 2017 for Chip Ganassi Racing.

With Bowman re-signed, Hendrick Motorsports has all four of its full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers – Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson – signed for 2022.

Article originally posted on nascar.com