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NASCAR

Alex Bowman Scores First NASCAR Win Since Breaking Back In Sprint Car Crash

Alex Bowman Scores First NASCAR Win Since Breaking Back In Sprint Car Crash

For the first time since breaking his back in a High Limit Racing event at 34 Raceway in 2023, Alex Bowman is back in NASCAR Cup Series victory lane.

Jul 8, 2024 by Rob Blount
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A broken back has the potential to be a life-altering injury, let alone a career-altering injury. NASCAR Cup Series driver Alex Bowman broke his back in a Sprint Car crash at 34 Raceway in April of 2023 when he was competing with High Limit Racing. Amazingly, Bowman only missed four races, but the injury derailed his season.

Add to that the fact that Bowman also missed five races at the end of the 2022 season due to a concussion suffered in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway, and one could argue that Bowman is lucky to still be racing. 

But Bowman finally fully completed the comeback on Sunday in a crazy, unpredictable, and rain-impacted/darkness-shortened race on the streets of Chicago. Bowman ran a mistake-free final laps to take his first victory since March of 2022, before the concussion, and before the broken back.

“Man, I broke my back and had a brain injury, and we’ve kind of sucked ever since,” Bowman said on NBC following his win. “You start to second-guess whether you’re ever going to win again. Last one we won we didn’t really get to celebrate. We’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight.”

With Bowman’s victory on Sunday in Chicago he is now locked into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and scored 11th in points instead of near the bubble like he was entering the race.

Sunday’s race on the streets of Chicago was scheduled for 75 laps, but Bowman completed just 58 of the 75 laps. NASCAR put a determined time of 9:20 p.m. ET on the race, plus two laps, in the event that darkness would prevent the scheduled distance of being reached. After storm brough heavy rains to Chicago for the second year in a row, the race was put under the red flag for more than one and a half hours.

Now the Cup Series turns its attention to Pocono Raceway next week before then heading back to the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the return of the Brickyard 400 before the two-week break for the Paris Olympics. 

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