Wednesday (April 26) it was revealed that Alex Bowman suffered a broken vertebrae in a crash while racing sprint cars at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa on Tuesday night. Bowman will be out for 3-4 weeks as he gets treatment and heals up from the open-wheel accident.
What is a bit concerning is that Bowman is the second driver in the Hendrick Motorsports stable to miss races this season with an injury suffered outside of a racecar. Kyle Larson and William Byron also make a number of races at dirt tracks and short tracks across the country during the year, which seems to be cause of concern for a team that fields four legitimate Cup championship contenders.
Is it time for Hendrick Motorsports to intervene and save their drivers from themselves? This week Vito Pugliese and Wyatt Watson weigh the risks and rewards in Two-Headed Monster.
Just Say Woah
What do Chase Elliott’s broken leg and Alex Bowman’s broken vertebrae have in common?
Besides providing Josh Berry a crash course on Next Gen car control and set up, absolutely nothing. For Hendrick Motorsports to have two drivers put on the shelf for several weeks in first half of the season is less than ideal, and has to have Mister H and Jeff Gordon squirming in their respective chairs a bit.
What Elliott and Bowman do have in common is no wins yet this year, and while Bowman has three top fives thus far, the first race he’s going to miss is Dover – where he won two years ago. That is going to put a strain on an organization that already has had one of its drivers injured this year – and very well could have had another injured at Talladega last Sunday judging by the condition of Larson’s rollcage.
Speaking of Larson, might it be time for HMS to pull the reigns in on their dirt star to help preserve him for their multimillion-dollar Cup operation that have for their championship driver? I mean after all they are still self-funding the No. 5 for the third straight season.
HMS has been one of the more lenient when it comes to allowing drivers to pursue extra-circular racing activities. Jeff Gordon, Elliott and Jimmie Johnson have all raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona and Byron has made a number of super late model starts.
In 2024, Larson is also slated to attempt the Indianapolis 500 with Arrow McLaren and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day, becoming the fifth driver to manage the feat. Given the number of injuries from concussions that drivers…
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