Alex Bowman will remain at Hendrick Motorsports through 2023

NASCAR driver Alex Bowman will remain at Hendrick Motorsports at least through the 2023 season. The Cup team announced Friday that it signed Bowman to a two-year contract extension, solidifying it’s stable of young talent at the four-car organization in the future.

Bowman raced for Hendrick Motorsports on a part-time basis in 2016 before landing a full-time ride in the No. 88 Chevrolet in 2018, succeeding driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. after his retirement. This season, Bowman transitioned to the No. 48 Chevrolet previously driven by seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

His contract terms correlate with partner company Ally Bank’s commitment to the No. 48 team as the car’s primary sponsor. Bowman has scored two race wins during the 2021 season, at Richmond and Dover, which comprise half of his career wins in the top series.

The announcement was timed with Ally’s title sponsorship of the Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway this Sunday, when the series races for the first time at the track in Lebanon, Tenn. and NASCAR returns to the speedway for first time since 2011, when the Xfinity and Truck Series last raced there.

“Y’all kept asking, well what better week than this one to make it a reality!” tweeted Ally chief marketing officer Andrea Brimmer.

Hendrick Motorsports executive vice president Jeff Andrews announced Bowman’s extension in front of company members at Nashville leading up to this weekend’s races.

Bowman, 28, is among a crop of driver talent at HMS that has combined to lead the Cup Series this season. Hendrick Motorsports has produced the most wins so far in 2021 between Kyle Larson (three wins), Bowman (two), Chase Elliott (one) and William Byron (one). Larson signed a multi-year contract deal with HMS last season, while Byron and Elliott are both signed with the team through 2022.

“Chevrolet this year has stepped up tremendously on the technical side and been a huge asset for us and a huge part of our success,” Andrews said last Sunday after Larson won the non-points All-Star Race. “All the men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports that are just putting some amazing race cars together right now and locking arms and staying focused for the coming months in the playoffs.”

Bowman finished sixth in Cup standings last year, a career-best, after making the playoffs for the third consecutive season and advancing to the Round of 8 for the first time. He was 28 points short of making the cut to the Championship 4 in 2020, and again poised to make the playoffs sitting 11th in points standings.

“Cue the confetti! Let’s continue to #DoItRight! Thank you @AllyRacing and @TeamHendrick,” Bowman tweeted after the announcement.

The Cup Series races at 3:30 p.m. EST this Sunday for the Ally 400 on NBCSN. Qualifying to set the starting lineup takes place at 11:05 a.m. the same day on NBCSN.