Alex Bowman explains top reasons for his impending retirement from NASCAR

News broke Thursday that Alex Bowman will retire at the end of the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season, capping a solid Cup career for the Tucson, Arizona, native. 

Bowman will be just 34 when he retires, a very young age for modern Cup drivers to retire. But it seems that his retirement, which comes after years of injuries plagued him, isn't as sudden as originally thought. 

"I remember when I first came to Hendrick Motorsports [in 2016] having a sit-down with financial advisor, because I was finally actually making money," Bowman told Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, "And talking about, 'How long are you going to race for? What are your plans?' That was 10 years ago now. 

"The first thing I said was, I'm not doing this past 35. It's always kind of been ... I have a lot of things I want to do in my life that I can't do while I'm driving."

The aforementioned injuries — a concussion in 2022, a back injury in 2023 and vertigo earlier this season — also contributed to Bowman's decision. 

Why Alex Bowman is retiring after 2027

"That certainly made things tough," Bowman said. "The head injury thing, obviously we all kind of know how that stuff stacks up and isn't good long-term. And then honestly, I care so much about how we run on Sundays. I've tried really hard to get better at letting a bad weekend go, letting a result on Sunday not control my entire life.

"But it does. For me, this week's a prime example. We had a sh--- Sunday. I screwed up, thought I was clear, was not clear, caused a crash that ruined a bunch of people's [days]. Looked like a total idiot. And all week, I'm just so mad at myself that it just spills over into everything else."

Bowman said that his desire to be a dad tops the list as one of the reasons for his retirement.

"I don't want to be a dad when I'm coming home mad from races," Bowman said. "I don't want to have kids doing that. A lot of reasons, but it's also kind of always been the plan. I look at guys that race forever and that's super cool, but that's just not me."