In some late shocking news on Thursday, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Alex Bowman will not compete in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway after experiencing concussion-like symptoms following an accident in the Sept. 25 event at Texas Motor Speedway.

Bowman, the title-contending driver of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, was evaluated by physicians today in Charlotte, North Carolina.

pic.twitter.com/PUd807sn01

— Alex Bowman (@Alex_Bowman) September 29, 2022

Noah Gragson will fill in for Bowman this weekend. The Las Vegas native has 13 Cup-level starts in 2022 with a best finish of fifth Aug. 28 at Daytona International Speedway. The 24-year-old driver won the April 23 NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Talladega. As a result, Justin Allgaier will then replace Gragson in the No. 62 Chevrolet for Beard Motorsports as Gragson was supposed to race for them.

💭 “You race 80% all day and not put yourself in a bad position where you can hit the wall…I want to be 100% for the Xfinity car.”

🗣 Despite running in the #NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, @NoahGragson doesn’t want to compete in any more Cup races this year due to risk of injury. pic.twitter.com/EC28If4qwQ

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) September 25, 2022

Bowman is the 2nd driver to miss a race due to concussion-like symptoms this season following Kurt Busch as the other. Busch crashed in qualifying on July 23 and hasn’t been back since.

Bowman enters this weekend 26 points below the cutline and will be facing a must-win scenario at the Charlotte ROVAL should he be cleared. He was granted a waiver by NASCAR on Thursday too.