NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick sends dire Alex Bowman warning over Hendrick Motorsports future

NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick has warned Alex Bowman that he needs to start winning again if he's hoping to stay at Hendrick Motorsports beyond this year.

Bowman came back to racing at Bristol last week after missing four races with vertigo symptoms, and already looks likely to miss the postseason barring a fantastic run in the near future.

Unfortunately for the driver of the No. 48, his contract is up this season and – despite his history with the organization – he has clearly been the worst performing Hendrick driver for some time.

The 32-year-old has won just one of his last 137 starts in the Cup Series (at the Chicago street race in 2024), and hasn't advanced to the Round of 8 in the playoffs since 2020.

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Harvick tells Bowman to win...or fear for his seat

Speaking on his Happy Hour podcast this week, Harvick hailed Bowman's return to health and racing but warned that the performance issues will have to be fixed sooner rather than later if a new contract is to be forthcoming.

“It’s great to have Alex Bowman back in the car,” Harvick said. “That’s the ride that he had and earned to get to this point. You couldn’t ask for a tougher racetrack to come back to than Bristol with all the G’s and all the heat. It was hot this weekend. Typically not that warm in the spring race at Bristol.

“It’s good to see him back in the car, but now we’re back to analyzing the 48’s performance, and it wasn’t good. Throughout the weekend, they didn’t really have any speed and wound up in an accident.

"Now, they got to concentrate on we’ve got the driver’s health back where it needs to be. Now, what do we got to do to get this car back to where it needs to be, solidly in the top 10? That’ll be the next tall task that they have to figure out.”

He added: "If you’re going to keep your job, you’re going to have to win.”

NASCAR Cup Series standings after Bristol

Pos	Driver	Manufacturer	Points (Stage)	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s
1	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	386 (58)	4	5	6
2	Ryan Blaney	Ford	324 (81)	1	3	6
3	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	300 (64)	1	3	5
4	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	281 (49)	1	5	6
5	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	264 (34)	1	3	4
6	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	260 (72)	0	2	5
7	William Byron	Chevrolet	245 (55)	0	2	4
8	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	236 (64)	0	0	4
9	Christopher Bell	Toyota	231 (52)	0	3	4
10	Chris Buescher	Ford	230 (41)	0	0	3
11	Brad Keselowski	Ford	229 (29)	0	2	3
12	Joey Logano	Ford	218 (46)	0	2	3
13	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	209 (38)	0	2	3
14	Ryan Preece	Ford	209 (22)	0	0	2
15	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	192 (26)	0	1	2
16	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	177 (24)	0	1	2
17	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	176 (28)	0	2	3
18	Austin Cindric	Ford	172 (49)	0	1	2
19	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	171 (19)	0	1	2
20	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	156 (15)	0	0	1
21	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	153 (11)	0	1	1
22	Zane Smith	Ford	144 (10)	0	0	2
23	Erik Jones	Toyota	133 (0)	0	0	2
24	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	131 (11)	0	0	0
25	Josh Berry	Ford	128 (25)	0	0	2
26	Todd Gilliland	Ford	127 (11)	0	0	1
27	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	124 (8)	0	0	0
28	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	111 (14)	0	0	0
29	Riley Herbst	Toyota	109 (9)	0	0	1
30	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet	107 (4)	0	1	1
31	Noah Gragson	Ford	104 (1)	0	0	0
32	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	95 (0)	0	0	0
33	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	84 (2)	0	0	0
34	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	76 (3)	0	0	0
35	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	64 (0)	0	0	0
36	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	24 (7)	0	0	0
37	Casey Mears	Ford	9 (3)	0	0	0
38	BJ McLeod	Chevrolet	3 (0)	0	0	0