"Anxiety is something I’ve battled with": Alex Bowman opens up about mental health in NASCAR

Alex Bowman reflected on his battle with mental health in an interview with Forbes. According to the Hendrick Motorsports driver, longevity in NASCAR depends on one's ability to take care of oneself.

Bowman has signed up for Ad Council's 'Love, you mind" campaign. Alongside other sportspersons like USA Olympic Snowboarder Chloe Kim, NWSL soccer player Macey Hodge, and MLS soccer player Tim Ream, Bowman promoted mental health awareness on November 19.

Speaking at the event, Bowman said,

“I think mental health awareness is super important for anyone across the board. Doesn’t matter if you are a competitive athlete or a regular person."

"Anxiety is something I’ve battled with....from my vantage point, as a driver, how I take care of myself can really determine longevity in the sport. You have to take care of your mind through a lot of that—or it gets bad pretty quick," he added.

Alex Bowman also called racing a challenging sport, one that ebbs and flows through a season. The No.48 driver is no stranger to the fact, as he had to battle around the playoff bubble until the final regular-season race.

However, the playoffs were largely uneventful for Bowman. With only two top-10 finishes, the 32-year-old bowed out in the round of 16. He has also gone winless this season, with his best result coming from a runner-up finish at Richmond Raceway.

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Alex Bowman speaks out on drivers 'holding grudges'

In the same interview with Forbes, Alex Bowman opened up about having rifts with other drivers. The Arizona native shared how an incident can come back to 'haunt' a driver several weeks later.

"Sometimes, if something happens on the race track," Bowman began, "you get over it pretty quickly, or you have a conversation and work it out post-race. Then, sometimes you have an issue with the same person, and it can kind of linger and end badly, depending on who it is."

“Every situation is different. But sometimes drivers can hold grudges, and you can have (an incident) come up again haunt somebody, say, 15 weeks later, lingering with someone else," he added.

Alex Bowman experienced multiple run-ins with Shane van Gisbergen this season. During the Richmond race, Bowman was seen visibly frustrated with the New Zealander after the latter held him up as a lapped driver. The same situation happened during the playoffs, but with Bowman on the receiving end of it.

Van Gisbergen was on the lead lap during the penultimate race at Martinsville Speedway, but felt disrupted by Bowman's lapped car. The Trackhouse Racing driver vented about the same over the team radio.

SVG ended up 14th on the running order, while Bowman finished a lap down at 23rd. Notably, van Gisbergen began the race in 22nd.