Alex Bowman has opened up on his experiences with vertigo, after missing nearly a month of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season due to the condition.
The Hendrick Motorsports star exited the March 1st race at COTA early, with Myatt Snider subbing in mid-race when the vertigo symptoms began to make themselves known.
The No. 48 was driven by substitute drivers at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Darlington and Martinsville before Bowman was medically cleared to run at Bristol – where he was wrecked after less than a third of the race distance.
Promising results followed at Talladega and Texas – a pair of third-place finishes – before results began to turn downward again over the last month.
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Bowman: It wasn't a lot of fun
Asked by The Athletic's Jeff Gluck this week how he would describe the vertigo experience to someone who had never experienced it, Bowman replied: "Have you ever drank way too much and got the spins? That’s it.
"Except I couldn’t lay on the couch and hang my leg off the side of the couch to fix it. That’s honestly the easiest way to describe it.
"I was obviously throwing up all over myself. I was dizzy. I was spinning. It wasn’t a lot of fun.
"There was a misconception from fans that when I was sitting at home the next couple weeks, I was sitting there with vertigo the whole time. Thankfully, I was not. The race car was about the only thing that could make that happen, other than some tests that the doctors put me through.
"But yeah, it sucked a lot. Glad to be feeling better from that now, but it was not a lot of fun."
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