INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Bowman considered walking away from NASCAR after this season. A series of discouraging results convinced him to give racing one more shot.
One day after the 33-year-old Arizona native announced he'll retire after the 2027 season, Bowman arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first Brickyard 400 practice and explained why he decided to embark on one final farewell tour with Hendrick Motorsports.
"I think I really want to end on a more positive note than kind of how this year's been,” he said Friday. “I've had my fair share (of concussions), but this really isn't a physical thing. I think if I would have had no injuries over the last 10 years, this time frame would still be this time frame. This is kind what I wanted.”
Bowman has spent the past 10 years driving for one of NASCAR's top teams, first in the No. 88 car before switching to the No. 48. He enters this weekend with eight career wins, 114 top 10 finishes and seven pole wins in 371 career Cup starts.
In recent years, though, he battled health issues.
Bowman missed four races this season because of vertigo and, in addition to the concussions, also suffered a back injury in a 2023 sprint car race. He then re-injured his back in a big crash at Michigan in 2025.
Somehow, though, Bowman managed to make seven playoff appearances in the previous eight seasons. This year, he's 29th in points — well below the 16-driver postseason cutline.
“It has been a journey for sure, and it hasn't gone the way I had hoped, I guess, in some ways," he said. “It's been a lot of fun even though the stat sheet might read what I want it to read. It's still been great in a lot of ways.”
Bowman's impending departure means Hendrick will have a rare full-time opening in 2028. But finding a successor for Bowman's seat was not a priority on Friday's agenda.
Instead, teammates and team officials offered their support to Bowman about his decision and the 53 races remaining on his schedule.
“I really enjoyed my time with him,” two-time Cup champ Kyle Larson said. “He made us all better. I really enjoyed having him around, the debriefs and all that, even tried to make it something bigger that we all enjoyed. And he can drive the heck out of a race car. So he brings a lot to the race team, and I'm happy that he's able to do it on his own terms."
Bowman wasn't the only driver talking about his future plans.
JR Motorsports announced last week that 40-year-old Justin Allgaier, the O'Reilly Series points leader, will return for 2027 and beyond. The announcement ended speculation about Allgaier retiring this year as he chases his second series title in three years.
“I had a pretty good thought that (retirement) was the direction we were going to go and there's still some things that we have to work through to finalize all that before it's official,” Allgaier said. “For me, it was entrusting some of the groups around me, the conversation with my wife, probably most importantly my kids, just trying to discuss what that looked like and even then the partners, right? It was making sure we were able to put funding together to be able to race."
Bowman also has plans outside of racing.
He announced on Instagram in December that he and longtime girlfriend Chloe Henderson had gotten engaged, and though he's not considering a broadcasting career at the moment, he didn't rule it out in the future as he chases other aspirations.
“I think for me, much more of it is things I want to do outside the race car, other goals I have in life and stuff I want to do," Bowman said. "If it was straight up like I can't do this anymore, it probably would have been this year. But I do feel like I can continue to (race) at a high level.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Alex Bowman (48) and Tyler Reddick (45) spin in Turn 2 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
FILE - Alex Bowman during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race event at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu,File)
CHICAGO (AP) — The WNBA will have a replay center similar to the NBA next season as the league continues to invest in officiating, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced at her state of the league press conference Saturday before the All-Star Game.
Officiating has been a hot topic around the league for the last few seasons, with physical play being a major point of contention. The league put together a task force in the offseason to help clean up some of the physicality in the game.
“This is one of the most significant investments we’ve ever made in our basketball operations, this investments of tens of millions of dollars will help bring greater consistency, efficiency, and transparency to our officiating process while continuing to improve the quality of the game,” Engelbert said.
Engelbert said that a lot of the details on the replay center still need to be worked out, although she said, as of now, the last two-minute report that the NBA has won't be used in the WNBA yet.
Fouls have been up this season as there has been an emphasis to help players' freedom of movement. The increase in fouls has led to more offense as teams are averaging a record-high number of points. It has also led to longer games. Earlier this month, league gametimes were at an average of 2 hours, 8 minutes — the longest in league history.
Engelbert said the league is continuing to work with the players to try and improve their safety off the court. The league and players' union had a virtual meeting on Tuesday night to discuss what more can be done to combat the online hate.
“(For) too many players across the WNBA, that experience is unacceptable,” she said. “Many cases, it’s disgusting. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, the harassment and threats directed to our players has no place in sport or anywhere else.”
Engelbert said the feedback from the players was helpful to her.
The WNBA’s investigation into whether a Las Vegas Aces sponsorship deal violated the salary cap was inconclusive, Engelbert said.
“No discipline will be recommended or imposed. Of course, if new or additional evidence comes to light, we’ll continue to investigate. But, you know, the integrity of our game is number one,” the commissioner said.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority offered in May 2024 a $100,000 sponsorship agreement to Aces players for each of the following two seasons. That amount exceeded the salaries for six of the players, according to Spotrac.
No such agreement was offered for this season, but player salaries also dramatically rose after the new collective-bargaining agreement was completed in May. Each Aces player earns at least $270,000, according to Spotrac. The initial offer prompted the league to launch a probe into whether it skirted salary-cap rules.
“We did this the right way,” LVCVA president and CEO Steve Hill said at the time. “We did something that we think works for Las Vegas and I think great for the players. We did this without the team. It was our idea and any questions they ask they’ll find that out.”
Engelbert said that the league needs to do better communicating with its players, whether its through texts or emails or some other form. One of the chief complaints from players has been that they have no relationship with the commissioner. A'ja Wilson said before the game that the only time she talks to Engelbert is when she's receiving trophies.
“I’ve been talking with the players about how much they want to hear from us, how much they don’t,” Engelbert said. “We do send them a lot of email updates and things like that. They’re a generation that doesn’t check email as much. So we have to get better at a text chain. ... We have to be better at it. it’s something certainly like if a player is getting honored or players gets hurt or something like, I try to reach out to them, and, yeah. So we need to be better at it. There’s no doubt I need to be better.”
Engelbert sidestepped a question about if she planned to be the commissioner next season.
“I’m so blessed to have to be at the helm of this league during this incredible hypergrowth period. So blessed that these players are putting the product on the court,” she said. "I will just continue to, you know, do my job, execute the strategy because it has been working."
Engelbert said that this is already the most-watched WNBA season of all-time, with the 117 broadcasts reaching over 73 million unique viewers. Twenty-nine of the games averaged over one million viewers — the most ever at the All-Star break. They had 11 all of last season.
There have been more than 2.2 million fans at games so far this year, which is up 16% from last season.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert smiles as she talks to media at a news conference before a WNBA All-Star basketball game between Team Coop and Team Spoon in Chicago, Saturday, July 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert talks to media at a news conference before a WNBA All-Star basketball game between Team Coop and Team Spoon in Chicago, Saturday, July 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
