Alex Bowman will not make his scheduled NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series start this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway; Kyle Larson will drive JR Motorsports' No. 88 in his place.
Bowman had been slated to pilot the No. 88 in two races during the 2026 season but will miss his second planned start after already missing his first scheduled outing at Darlington Raceway because of a vertigo diagnosis.
JR Motorsports has split driving duties of its No. 88 between five drivers so far this season. The car has been shared by the four Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series drivers and Rajah Caruth, and Larson himself stepped in for Bowman at Darlington earlier in the year and finished fourth when he substituted.
Larson’s return to the seat at Nashville extends a string of spot starts for the No. 88; he is two for four in NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series starts this season. The substitution keeps JR Motorsports' entry list full for the weekend while Bowman remains absent from the series’ lineup.
Bowman's name, however, remains on the entry list for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville. He enters the weekend 33rd in points and is 156 points outside the current cutoff spot for the 2026 Chase for the Cup, a deficit that leaves his season status precarious.
Context matters: Bowman missed his first planned start at Darlington after reporting vertigo symptoms, and the record shows he has missed four races because of that diagnosis. The gap in his O'Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is part of a wider problem — a Cup season that has left him deep in the standings after a difficult start.
The tension is immediate. JR Motorsports’ strategy of rotating five drivers in the No. 88 has kept the car competitive when Bowman has been sidelined, but it also underscores the uncertainty around who will carry the ride through the rest of the year. Larson’s fourth-place finish at Darlington and his two-for-four record this season argue the team has reliable options; Bowman’s continued absences leave the timeline for his return unclear.
For Bowman personally, the consequences are tangible. Missing both planned O'Reilly starts and sitting well outside the Chase places pressure on his Cup campaign and raises a practical question for his team: whether to continue slotting Cup regulars into the No. 88 for single events or to look for a steadier arrangement that could salvage points and momentum.
Bowman opened the season expected to split two races in the No. 88; instead, the team has cycled through multiple drivers and leaned on Larson’s experience. If Bowman cannot return to competition soon, the facts suggest his path back into Chase contention will be extremely narrow. For now, the story of his season pivots on his health and clearance to race, and on whether the rotating lineup for the No. 88 can keep JR Motorsports competitive while he recovers.
