Bowman, 29, suffered a concussion in a ruin early within the Sept. 25 crawl at Texas Motor Speedway. He went on to produce the crawl but has now not competed since.
On Friday, Hendrick Motorsports presented Bowman had been medically cleared to compete following a corpulent overview by Dr. Michael “Micky” Collins, scientific director of the University of Pittsburgh Scientific Heart Sports Remedy Concussion Program.
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Alex Bowman cleared to realize motivate for Phoenix NASCAR Cup finale
Because it used to be so shut to the originate of the crawl weekend at Martinsville, Va., HMS elected to bear Bowman return to his No. 48 Chevrolet in next weekend’s season finale at Phoenix.
“It’s now not a straightforward component to be here and now not be in a crawl automobile. It’s chilly to be motivate spherical my team and hiss relating to the enhance from the crawl fans,” Bowman stated. “Having a purpose to acquire motivate to used to be crucial as a ways as how laborious I had to work to acquire to this point. It used to be reasonably hard.
“It used to be 6 a.m. workouts day-after-day adopted by a 9 a.m. workout day-after-day. I’ve worked if truth be told laborious. If I didn’t bear the likelihood to acquire motivate this year, I doubtlessly would bear pushed issues off and now not worked as laborious. On high of that, the doctors bear stated I’m 100 p.c. I hiss if there used to be any hesitation there it’d be diversified.
“There used to be lots of motivation to acquire motivate for the Phoenix crawl. It’s my closing crawl with Greg (Ives) as a crew chief. I didn’t have to exit with the plot Texas went with Greg, . I didn’t want take a seat the overall offseason questioning it. I needed to acquire motivate within the crawl automobile.”
Facing being sidelined
Bowman stated most hard segment of his restoration used to be “searching at any individual else driving the No. 48 automobile on Sundays.”
“That’s now not fun by any ability,” he stated. “It’s factual uncommon now not going to the crawl song. All I’ve ever identified is racing and for of us that’re now not going to the song and having to variety diversified issues on a weekend is factual uncommon.”
Bowman used to be the 2d sequence driver sidelined this season to miss races with a concussion. Kurt Busch used to be injured in ruin all via qualifying on July 23 at Pocono Raceway and has now not raced since.
Bowman stated his expertise with a concussion used to be irregular and he didn’t bear what he knowing were “neatly-liked” symptoms.
“Monday (after the Texas crawl) I didn’t feel immense. It used to be laborious for me to identify what used to be if truth be told occurring. Fundamentally, for of us that’ve a crawl when it used to be that hot you roughly feel sinful or dehydrated or no matter,” Bowman stated.
“Tuesday, I felt immense. I ran three laps in my hotfoot automobile for an Ally deal. I felt immense via all that – entirely traditional. On Wednesday, I had devour a loopy busy day and by the center of the day I felt reasonably sinful. That’s after I roughly identified what used to be occurring and went to acknowledge the doctors.”
Requested to identify the most predominant discipline he had to manage with in his restoration, Bowman pointed to his imaginative and prescient.
“I feel devour the overall concussion symptoms I would bear heard of all via my occupation, issues devour nausea and issues devour that, I didn’t bear any of. I factual had lots of rigidity in my eyes, almost devour when your sinuses are if truth be told plugged up and likewise you bear a terribly sinful sinus headache and rigidity behind your eyes,” he stated.
“That used to be the most bright component. From what the doctors order, a concussion hurts the weakest segment of your physique. I had some imaginative and prescient stuff going – my imaginative and prescient’s now not vulnerable – but it used to be a vulnerable point for me. It factual messed with my ocular device and that used to be the component that took the longest to get better from.
“I feel 100-p.c. I’ve been practicing extra difficult than ever the closing couple of weeks honestly so I’m in a higher build than I used to be before.”
