Alex Bowman got a two-year contract expansion from Hendrick Motorsports on Friday that observes NASCAR’s return to Nashville and sponsor Ally’s help of the first Cup Series race nearby in 37 years.
Bowman was reached out through the 2023 season to line up with Ally’s commitment to the No. 48 Chevrolet. The digital financial services organization entered NASCAR in 2019 as backer for seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and Ally needed Bowman to move into the vehicle this season after Johnson’s transition to IndyCar.
Bowman is in his 6th full season of Cup dashing and his fourth with Hendrick. He has a profession high two successes so far this season and heads into Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway 11th in the standings.
The superspeedway has been dormant since it hosted its 21st and last Xfinity Series race in 2011. Dover Motorsports resumed the track this year and moved one of its Cup rushes to Nashville to bring NASCAR’s top series to the concrete oval for the first time.
The Cup Series hasn’t dashed in the Nashville area since 1984, when Geoff Bodine won the last premier series race held at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
To help NASCAR’s return of Nashville, Ally signed a multiyear deal for the entitlement rights to Sunday’s race at the speedway. NASCAR gave Nashville Superspeedway a four-year bargain for Cup.
“It was always our design to have the footprint expand,” Andrea Brimmer, Ally’s chief marketing and public relations officer, said when the sponsorship of the Ally 400 was announced. “It needed to be the right race in the right place with the right partners, and [Nashville] was the combination of all of those. It was the trifecta of what we were looking for.”
Ally as a part of its entitlement sponsorship said it would give $25,000 to Nashville’s Box 55 Association, which offers help to nearby specialists on call, and $25,000 to the Urban League of Middle Tennessee, a civil rights and urban advocacy organization.