MEXICO CITY — As Bowman hobbled out of his race car after two practice sessions at Mexico City, it was visually apparent the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports driver wasn’t 100% yet following his crash at Michigan International Speedway last weekend.
“I was in a lot of pain on Wednesday, but I got a lot of help from people, and got back on my feet pretty quickly after Wednesday morning,” Bowman shared before climbing back into his car for qualifying. “Just thankful that I had as much help and support as I did. But yeah, there were points this week that it was like the most pain that I’ve gone through.”
This isn’t the first time Bowman has experienced hard hits in his career. In 2022 and 2023, he missed time due to a concussion and a broken back, though this time, nothing was broken. But Bowman admitted he never felt this much pain compared to his previous incidents and felt there was a possibility he would miss Sunday’s race.
“I’m glad that nothing’s broken and that I’m as OK as I am,” Bowman said. “I think going to a road course right after probably makes it tougher than an oval would. But, not a big deal.
“I’ve just been the test dummy lately, and everything did its job, right? Like, everything moved a lot and I don’t know if on paper, that’s the biggest one I’ve taken, but it’s the most painful one I’ve ever taken, for sure, even compared to when I broke my back. It’s way more pain than that was.”
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Bowman received a lot of physical therapy during the week to get him as close as possible to being ready for 100 laps around an unfamiliar road course. However, when it comes to his comfort behind the wheel, Bowman clarified that the biggest challenge for him since the hit has been sitting down in the car and the way his seat positions him has “hurt quite a bit.”
Still, the eight-time Cup Series winner is focused on Sunday’s race and determined to course correct after seven finishes of 27th or worse in the last nine races.
“I would say for me, my goal is to make all the laps this weekend. That’s kind of first and foremost,” Bowman said. “But we’ll have to wait and see how much better we’ve got our car today versus yesterday and what goes on in the race. I think there are a lot of different elements to this race, with heating and cooling and brakes overheating — stuff like that.
“Our car didn’t have a lot of raw speed, but I think we’re on the good side of some of those other issues that other people had; definitely an opportunity for us to go run well. It’s been a pretty miserable two months, and just trying to kind of get things turned back around and pointed in the right direction.”
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After a rain-shortened qualifying session and logging just three laps, Bowman will roll off 29th for the inaugural Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in his quest for a second consecutive postseason bid.