All angles: Alex Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Ally Chevrolet for 2023

Alex Bowman returns for his third season driving the No. 48 Ally Racing Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a new look for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series. The space-age paint scheme features dual designs for daytime and nighttime races, each projecting movement while featuring Ally's signature shade of purple. The project is the vision of Caroline Fogle, NASCAR Studios' director of creative design, who will bring her first paint-scheme design to life this year.

The "night" No. 48 Ally Racing paint scheme for Cup Series events under the lights this year, with neon accents intended to push the theme of movement forward for nighttime races.

Ally Racing set guidelines for what the company wanted in their on-track image for this year, favoring a design that made Bowman stand out. Words like bold, fierce, iridescent, loud and sleek were part of the guidance.

"As you can imagine, we've been in the sport for a number of years now, and every year this comes up of how do we innovate, and how are we different, and how do we deliver something that's going to be exciting and well received?" said Stephanie Marciano, Head of Sports & Entertainment Marketing at Ally. "As a primary sponsor, that's a big responsibility. Fans are eager to see fresh paint schemes, so this year, I think a lot went into kind of gathering the team and saying how do we kind of do three things."

Fogle, a 10-year veteran in NASCAR's design group, drew upon personal inspiration for crafting the No. 48's appearance. Connecting the idea of breaking the sound barrier with Ally's reputation for breaking barriers made sense.

"Not so secretly, I'm a big Star Wars fan," she says. "So the idea that I did with the colors kind of peeling off the car was more of like the car going into lightspeed in a way. If you watch the stars, the stars kind of look similar to the day scheme in a way, because it's not as blurred, but then the night scheme really is the effect that you see in Star Wars, so that was kind of my thought behind the whole thing. They said that they wanted it to be sleek and tech-forward, and that just felt more like they were doing something different that they've never done before."

Fogle's vision was chosen from an array of dynamic submissions from designers both inside and outside the sport of stock-car racing. But the process also allowed Ally to provide an opportunity to break new ground with her first paint scheme.

"Without a doubt, I think we have a true commitment to women's sports. And also I think it's twofold -- it's women's sports and it's women in sports. So this particular partnership with Caroline is women in sports, but it's just as important because we have found a way with Caroline to celebrate her voice, celebrate her vision, her talents, through the NASCAR space. And for us, that's good for Caroline, that's good for social inclusion at a macro level, and that's good for Ally as a brand and business."

The opportunity also gave Fogle the chance to explore the possibilities with Ally's signature plum shade of purple.

"I've always liked doing graphics for Alex and his Ally schemes," Fogle says. "The colors are fun, and it definitely already stands out from a lot of the brands that we work with in the sport, so I've always enjoyed it."

The design also meant a bit of a departure for Fogle, whose work hasn't always had her name front and center in the final display.

"It was probably my first-ever project at NASCAR where it was going to be my name on it," Fogle says. "Everything else, I kind of hide behind the NASCAR name and it's like a NASCAR graphic. But this time, it would be the first time that it was mine. And I wanted to be very cognizant of the NASCAR design community, and that there are a lot of really talented designers out there who know what they're doing, and I don't want I didn't want to come across as someone who just slapped a design on the car without really thinking it through and wanting to honor the previous designers and pretty much the path that they laid for me to be here."

Hendrick Motorsport released the first images of the new-look No. 48 Tuesday morning through social media. The real-life versions will hit the track next month in the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum (Feb. 5) and the season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 19).

"If you just go to our social media channels and see the 48 fans, and those guys want new stuff and they will let you know their thoughts on things, right?" Marciano said. "And we've heard from them a lot about their love of bold and bright colors, and certain cars that they've leaned into and loved and other cars that maybe didn't excite them as much. But I will say, most of the time fans say that we do deliver exciting new cars, and they like how the car looks on the track."

For Marciano and her team, the design checked three key boxes.

"Number one was disrupting, continuing to innovate," she said. "Number two was really to deliver for the fans and make sure that we're not taking this lightly because of how much they look forward to this every year. And then the third one was to kind of honor our mission and our values at Ally, and that's always about bringing diverse perspectives into the sport, and making sure as we build our full strategy for the year, that we're not siloed and that we're not just leaning on the same voice as we always do, internally and externally."

"With Caroline, there was true meaning behind her design that really felt like she did her homework on Ally and that she knows Ally because she's in the sport, and she sees what we're doing in the sport," Marciano said. "So I think that pulled through to her inspiration."

The rear view of the Ally Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, including the neon No. 48 above the rear bumper -- a nod to the car number's legacy with seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

Another three-quarter view of the No. 48 Chevrolet "day" scheme.

Top view of the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevy, depicting the idea of motion from the plum-purple front of the car. The design was selected from a diverse group of finalist submissions.

"We talked to a lot of people that are close to the sport, even folks that are outside of the sport that maybe just creatively have never designed a car per se, but have done some really unique things artistically, and we wanted to kind of talk to them and see their perspective," Marciano said. "But you know, after talking with Caroline, she is close to the sport and NASCAR, she knows what's been out there before, and she just overdelivered for us in her actual designs and then the thinking behind her design."

The "night" alternate paint scheme for the No. 48 Chevrolet.

"One of the coolest things about this design is actually the dual paint scheme, and we've never done it before," says Marciano. "So you know, every year we have our primary and then we do anywhere between three and five specialty paint schemes throughout the year, and we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to do NASCAR Salutes, we'll continue to do throwback weekend, probably lean into Best Friends (Animal Society) with Alex and something around our Ally 400. But how do you get really unique with the primary, and she came up with this awesome idea to do a dual paint scheme of day and night."

Designing the night scheme came with its own set of challenges, says Fogle, who based the alternate design off the original daytime look.

"I ended up having to do a lot more work on the night one, just to get the neon effect to be ... believable, I guess, and look good in a way that could be blown up on the car," she said. "But I like it so much, because I'm very much a black and white person. And so, day and night are two opposites and I just really appreciate the beauty in the contrast of the two subjects. So to go from, from the day scheme, which is lighter and a little bit more playful, and it has the white gradient on the back to switch it over to go more black. I think the plum purple, to just provide that contrast between the white and black and night and day is something that I always have appreciated in design."

The driver's side of the No. 48 Chevrolet with Alex Bowman's name above the door. The 29-year-old driver is heading into his third season representing Ally, and Marciano said that Bowman's values have aligned well with the company's.

"Alex has been tremendous," she says. "He is a driver that naturally has a lot of things that he loves and wants to support and believes in authentically. And we have actually ... it's been so lucky that we haven't had to force-fit anything. I mean, our driver has basically said, 'these things are very important to me; do they make sense to you as a brand?' and it's been natural."

Fogle's "Star Wars" influence comes through in the nighttime scheme, with warp-speed imagery on the No. 48 Chevrolet.

"I think that the respective colors on both cars will just pop tremendously, whether it's in day or whether it's under the lights at night," Marciano said. "So I think that was just another really cool thing that she brought to the table."

The front-end view of the No. 48 Chevrolet, continuing the 'breaking barriers' theme with its bold look.

"That resonated with us big time," Marciano said, "and it came through in the car design."

A rear three-quarter view of the "night" Ally Racing No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

View of the right-rear of the No. 48 Chevrolet. Bowman and the Hendrick Motorsports team will explore new venues in 2023, with the Cup Series schedule returning to its North WIlkesboro Speedway roots but also debuting into a street-circuit race in downtown Chicago this summer, bringing the team and brand to new markets.

"Everybody wants this sport to grow," Marciano said. "Everybody wants this sport to continue to be incredibly inclusive, and wants to appeal to even new fans. New fans grow the audience, so I think it's going to new markets and continuing the great initiatives that the sport has."

Another rear-side view of the nighttime version of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet.

View of the side of the No. 48 Chevy, with a seafoam shade of blue on the side number as a contrast to the white No. 48 on the roof.

Top view of the No. 48 Chevrolet, with Ally branding prominent on the front and back of the car.

With the season set to kick off, Fogle says she's had some time to reflect on the opportunity.

"It definitely came as a shock," Fogle said. "I was not prepared for the opportunity. But, this is going to be my 10th season here at NASCAR. And I know that I didn't know a lot when I first started and I still have a lot to learn. I just am always excited for the opportunity to do something new. And I think that that's why I like NASCAR so much is because our leadership is always ... they're not willing to just stick with the same thing year over year. They're trying to move the sport forward and to grow it, I guess, and to make it the best it can be. I think that as a designer, that's what you have to do. I mean, the moment that you graduate your degree is irrelevant at that point, like it's out of date, because design always evolves and keeps changing, and so does NASCAR. So I like to just walk in every day, and you have no idea what you're going to work on and just accept it, accept the challenge and run full-force at it."