BRISTOL, Tenn. — Alex Bowman was back at the race track Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, saying he’s back to feeling well after a month-long bout with vertigo.

Bowman’s remarks came two days after his Hendrick Motorsports team announced he was cleared to return to NASCAR Cup Series competition in Sunday’s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He is set to load back into his No. 48 Chevrolet for practice and qualifying later Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video).

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Bowman missed the last four Cup Series races with vertigo, which forced him to the sidelines during the March 1 event at Circuit of The Americas. Myatt Snider subbed in for Bowman the rest of the way in Austin, Texas, and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regulars Anthony Alfredo (Phoenix) and Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, Darlington, Martinsville) were fill-ins in subsequent weeks.

“Obviously, COTA wasn’t a lot of fun for me,” Bowman said Saturday. “I mean, everything was fine until it wasn’t obviously in the car — dizziness, throwing up on myself, spinning, all the things. So it wasn’t fun. Not pumped that I had to get out. Obviously, I’ve raced through a lot of injuries, but that was one where I was going to end up running into something or somebody, and the smart thing to do in that case was to get out. Just spent a lot of time with a lot of different doctors and had a lot of different help to go about the best rehab process possible and best practices going forward, and everything to get back to where I needed to be to get back in the car.”

But upon exiting the car at COTA, Bowman didn’t know if getting back in the car would ever be an option.

“Honestly, yeah, when I got out at COTA, I was like, this is probably it,” Bowman said. “Like, that was what was going through my head. So yeah, that sucked. Thankful that I get another shot at it.”

Bowman tested a street car at the Ten Tenths Motor Club circuit on Tuesday, then participated in pit practice, simulator testing and a medical evaluation in preparation for his return. Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports’ president and general manager, added that Bowman was cleared without restrictions, so the team does not have a backup driver “on call” this weekend in anticipation of Bowman completing the full 500-lap contest.

“The biggest thing is with vertigo being a symptom, just trying to find what was causing everything and why it happened and what the right path going forward was,” Bowman said. “There was definitely, for me, concern there, but at the same time, just trying to get back feeling well enough to do life. Fortunately, I had a lot of really great people around me that helped me a ton. The boss (team owner Rick Hendrick) flew me around to different places that I needed to be and all the things that we needed to do to give me the best help that we could get. Now I’m feeling really good, so thankful to be back feeling well.”

Bowman’s test days at the Ten Tenths Motor Club targeted his dizziness. In his first attempt, briefly after COTA, he ran only a couple of laps before feeling ill again. Finally, five weeks after the onset of his vertigo symptoms, Bowman has rid himself of that instability, feeling well enough through karting, pit practice and different workout regimens to re-establish a semblance of normalcy.

But Bristol is anything but normal. The 0.533-mile bullring is a steeply banked rollercoaster of a concrete race track with 15-second lap times that send the healthiest drivers for a loop. Why come back this week?

“Because they said I could,” Bowman said. “I mean, I’m a race-car driver, so you tell me I’m clear and I’m gonna go do it. It’s probably the worst place possible to come back to, I think not just from it’s physical, but it’s a track that is extremely difficult. The margins from the front to the back of the field are tiny. You look at qualifying here, and every hundredth (of a second) is multiple spots for the most part. I haven’t qualified a car in a month. Trying to get back up to speed.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult for me. My expectations coming here, it’s one of my best tracks — two of the last three poles here, expect to contend for wins. I think expectations probably change a little bit this week. If we could get out of here with a top 10, top 15, I think on my side of things, I’d be happy. But I think (Saturday) will be the hardest part, just getting back up to speed and trying to qualify after sitting on the couch.”

In Bowman’s absence, crew chief Blake Harris has led the No. 48 team without its primary driver. With Bowman back behind the wheel, Harris has no concerns that they’ll be back to normal soon.

“I think coming back to Bristol in general is just a place that he’s run really well, our company has performed well,” Harris told NASCAR.com Saturday morning. “So I think it’s good that the first week he’s coming back, it’s at a place that we’ll have some confidence in the cars and stuff with him, and really just good to kind of get back in routine with the guy that we’re used to preparing with every week and looking forward to it.”

The team ranks 34th in owners’ points through seven races, but that hasn’t been for a lack of effort. Through his recovery, Bowman stayed as plugged into the group’s communications as Alfredo and Allgaier jumped into the cockpit.

“I think it’s no secret that it’s been a rough year on the 48 team,” Bowman said, “and the two of them worked super hard to give it all they had. So appreciative of all their help. I spent a lot of time talking to Justin today before I came in here, too. Those guys were super helpful and really appreciate it.”

Bowman was originally scheduled to miss the Bristol weekend. His clearance this week meant another set of hustling for Harris and the No. 48 crew, but they were happy to do so if it meant their main driver was back behind the wheel.

“We’ve been just kind of back on our heels trying to react on whatever’s thrown at us,” Harris said. “To be honest, this week, once Alex was approved to get back in and get all his stuff back in the car and all those things, it wasn’t much different to what that’s kind of been to us, it seemed like, every week.”

But this isn’t the first time Bowman and Harris have navigated adversity together. In 2023, their first season paired, Bowman missed three races with a broken vertebra after a sprint-car crash. At the time, he and the No. 48 team were leading the points standings. Going through that process together once before has helped bond the duo for another unwanted situation.

“He should have the confidence in me knowing that whenever he’s ready to come back, we’ll have the team ready and the car ready and really lean into that,” Harris said. “There was no necessary timeline to when he had to be back, just whenever he felt good.”

That support has come from the top down, from Hendrick to Andrews on down the line.

“Alex Bowman has always been the driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, and we never had questions about whose seat that was,” Andrews said. “I think we said that early on that we would follow 100% the medical guidelines that we were given (to) plan Alex’s return when it was medically cleared, as well as when Alex said he was ready.

“For us, Alex is part of our team. He’s a key teammate for us and been an integral part of our company for quite some time. So we were willing to do what we needed to do to wait for him and get him back in at the right time. I think it’s a testament to Alex and how hard he worked to be back a week early.”

As Bowman said, Bristol is a track where he excels, collecting three top 10s and two pole positions in the last four Bristol races. He and the No. 48 team also participated in a Goodyear tire test in November, during which Harris said they completed nearly 500 laps — a full race length — to build a notebook.

The goal now is to begin a charge up the standings. While the No. 48 car is 34th in owners’ points, Bowman is saddled even further behind in 36th on the drivers’ side after missing four races.

“We want to win, and if you win, then that fixes all other things,” Harris said. “I think if you look at owners’ points or the drivers’ points, it’s definitely a tough road, right? There’s some things that have to go right. But I think, really, the next few weeks for us — going to Bristol; going to Kansas; Talladega, we’ve scored a lot of points and were really good at speedways. Texas has been a place he’s been really fast at. Like, if you just go the next three or four weeks and see how things go, I think that’ll kind of lay out really what that means.

“So I think again, if we can just run well and be in contention for wins and win some races, then I think the rest kind of works itself out.”

Contributing: Staff report