Kevin Harvick says Alex Bowman needs to win to keep Hendrick job

With all due respect to Alex Bowman’s recovery from vertigo, and return to the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 over the weekend after missing four NASCAR Cup Series races, now it’s time for the 32-year-old to save his job.

Everyone downplays it, but Bowman is in a contract year, and having faced several medical issues over the years while also not winning at the scope of his superstar teammates, that ride might become available without its current driver winning some races this summer.

To wit, 2014 Cup Series champion turned FOX Sports color analyst Kevin Harvick said it more bluntly than anyone else has yet while discussing the comeback on his Happy Hour YouTube show.

“It’s great to have Alex Bowman back in the car,” Kevin 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.

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“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.”

And then … Bowman will have to race to justify his next contract.

If you’re going to keep your job, you’re going to have to win.”

Bowman has eight career wins since joining Hendrick in 2018, at first replacing Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 in 2018 and then taking over for Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 in 2021. He has just two wins over the last four-plus seasons.

In addition to his Hall of Fame resume, and current analyst job, Harvick also owns a talent agency and represents numerous drivers in the Cup Series garage and is clued in on silly season matters as well as anyone.