Alex Bowman had no warning before he began feeling ill last weekend at Circuit of The Americas, according to Hendrick Motorsports President Jeff Andrews, who says the cause of what was subsequently diagnosed as vertigo remains unclear.
“It’s very odd,” Andrews said Friday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “No, there was nothing – there was no indication prior to the race. Several of us talked to Alex for quite a while, not only through the weekend but then again on Sunday. So, at some point during the race, this started to set in with him and became progressively worse.”
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One thing Andrews did discount was the suggestion that the vertigo issues developed from any of Bowman’s past injuries.
“It really has kind of come out of nowhere, so to speak,” Andrews said. “Alex has been seen and treated for some back and neck pain in the past, like I think most of these guys and ladies that strap into these stock cars and cinch those belts do after a fairly long career. But nothing out of the ordinary. Our staff hadn’t been treating him any differently from another driver or athlete. Yeah, don’t really have answers right now because it is so early on. I do know that he’s working super hard to get through this; he’s got a great team of specialists that are looking into this and looking after him.
“He’s undergone several rounds of testing to pinpoint exactly what it is. So the good news is it’s absolutely nothing concussion-related, anything like that, that should have a long-term effect. We’re supporting him as he goes down the right path and sees the right people to get himself better. That’s certainly our first priority, the health and safety of Alex Bowman, not only in one of our race cars but his personal health as a whole. We’ll support him however long this takes, and that seat will be ready for him when he’s ready to get back in that car.”
— Racer —