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Bowman Details Return to Cockpit After Concussion Recovery – Motorsports Tribune

Concussion-Like Symptoms Sideline Alex Bowman for Talladega – Motorsports Tribune

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Since sustaining a concussion at Texas in late September, Alex Bowman has been on the sidelines, but make his return for his home race Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

The Tuscon, Arizona native detailed the struggles he went through from the week following the crash to the announcement of his return a week ago. Bowman explained that while he felt fine up until mid-week following the Texas crash, his condition quickly went downhill, leading him to seek concussion treatment.

“Wednesday night, I realized that something was definitely wrong which was weird because Tuesday I felt completely fine,” Bowman said. “And again, that’s part of concussions. I think everybody gets their symptoms differently and kind of later onset symptoms are, I guess, way more normal than I would’ve thought. When I told the doctors what I was going through, they weren’t surprised by any means that I felt totally fine on Tuesday.

“By Thursday morning we were pretty clear that I wasn’t gonna drive the race car that weekend. I think they were working on plans well before I saw the doctors. While unfortunate, that’s part of what we go through.

He continued, noting that he wouldn’t want to see any other driver have to go through what he went through and expressed gratitude that he was able to recover in time to make it back to the cockpit this season.

“Those couple of weeks where the headaches and the eye pain and everything was bad. It was not fun,” Bowman said. “You know, I tried to keep myself busy and just kind of go through my days, but then you had to watch somebody else drive your race car and kind of going through all that, it just wasn’t much fun. You know, some days I felt okay and other days I felt really, really bad.

 That’s just part of concussions. It kind of comes and goes. As that got better, I was really thankful that it was getting better. That’s just part of driving race cars, you know, it’s not it’s not my first concussion by any means. And that’s life when you drive race cars.

Bowman added that during his recovery, there were times that he felt he was good to go and would be able to make a return to driving duties before Sunday, but his symptoms would creep back in and halt any progress he had made in a positive direction.

“There were days that I felt fine and that was probably two weeks in,” Bowman said. “I started to have days where the…

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