Alex Bowman ‘on hold’ with contract talks: ‘Obviously, I want to be at HMS for a long time’

Shortly after applying a digitized iRacing burnout on virtual Talladega Superspeedway, Alex Bowman provided a real-world update Sunday about his future in NASCAR's top series and his intent to stay with Hendrick Motorsports long-term. Bowman, who turned 27 on Saturday, prevailed in Sunday's eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race, the latest event in the virtual racing circuit that was created as a fill-in for competition while the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. A return to real-life racing remains in a temporary holding pattern; so has sorting Bowman's contract for 2021. MORE: Bowman wins in iRacing "Yeah, not really. I guess everything is kind of put on hold right now," Bowman said in a post-race teleconference Sunday afternoon. "Obviously, I want to be at HMS for a long time, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully they're working on it, for sure." Bowman is in his third full season driving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet, a ride he first took over as a 10-race substitute for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016. Since then, he scored his first Cup Series victory last season at Chicagoland Speedway. Before the sports world slowed to a halt this spring amid the global public-health crisis, Bowman seemed to bolster his case for a contract extension with a dominant win at Auto Club Speedway in the third race of the season. After that victory, he said that "every year is a contract year," referring to his journeyman career, while reaffirming his commitment to team owner Rick Hendrick. "There's never a situation that I feel completely comfortable in," Bowman said March 1. "I feel like if somebody doesn't want you driving their race cars, you're not going to be there driving it. I'm as motivated as ever, doing everything I can to try to be the best on and off the race track as I can be. Hendrick Motorsports is where I want to be. It's where I want to stay for the rest of my career. I don't have ‑‑ it's just where I've always wanted to be. It's where I want to stay."