Alex Bowman, who has been dealing with vertigo since the March 1 race at Circuit of the Americas, has been medically cleared to return to competition and will be back in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The 32-year-old Bowman turned laps in a street car at the Ten Tenths Motor Club road course in Concord, North Carolina, on Tuesday. The following day he participated in pit stop practice, simulator testing, and a medical evaluation before being formally cleared for competition without restrictions.
“We’re proud of Alex and the way he’s handled the situation,” Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports president and general manager, said in a prepared statement. “He’s put a lot of work into his recovery and followed the medical team’s plan every step of the way. From the outset, our goal was to prioritize his health and have him return when he was fully recovered and medically cleared.”
While dealing with the vertigo that forced him out of the car on lap 71 of the COTA event, Bowman missed NASCAR Cup Series races at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Darlington, and Martinsville. Anthony Alfredo substituted for Bowman at Phoenix, while Justin Allgaier stepped in for him at the other three races. Bowman was 36thin the driver standings after COTA. He remains in that position, which is last among full-time NASCAR Cup drivers.
Welcome back! @Alex_Bowman has been medically cleared and will race this weekend at Bristol.
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) April 9, 2026
"I feel really good, and I’m excited about being at the track with my team and getting back to racing.”https://t.co/btc9QOl9DUpic.twitter.com/Hpg2aA1bFK
“It’s been tough being out of the car, but we all wanted to make sure I was 100 percent ready before returning,” Bowman said in a prepared statement. “I feel really good, and I’m excited about being at the track with my team and getting back to racing. I’m grateful for the support I’ve had from Hendrick Motorsports, my sponsor Ally, our fans and the medical team throughout this process.”
Red Bull has confirmed that Max Verstappen's long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will leave at the end of the 2027 Formula 1 campaign - Motorsport.com understands he is set for a McLaren switch.
Lambiase has long been the subject of intense interest across the paddock, as the 45-year-old weighed up his options last winter. Amid links with Aston Martin and Williams, Lambiase ultimately chose to remain in place at Red Bull, where he not only performs the job of Verstappen's race engineer but also a more overarching trackside role as head of racing.
But then it emerged on Thursday morning, first reported by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, that he was set to leave the Austrian outfit at the end of his current contract in 2027. Red Bull has since confirmed that will take place.
Its short statement read: "Oracle Red Bull Racing confirms that Gianpiero Lambiase will leave the team in 2028, when his current contract expires. “GP” is a valued member of the team, which he joined in 2015.
"Until his planned departure, “GP" continues in his roles as head of racing and as race engineer to Max Verstappen. The team and he are fully committed to add more success to our strong track record together."
It is understood that he has agreed a deal to join rival McLaren for the 2028 campaign in a senior trackside role that would support team principal Andrea Stella. The reigning constructors' champion squad has been contacted for a comment.
With Stella part of the new generation of engineering-first team principals with a wide remit both across a race weekend and at the factory, Lambiase's arrival would help take some load off the Italian's plate as he looks after a team well north of 1000 staff.
However, speculation that Lambiase's move is part of a long-term plan to succeed Stella, amid alleged Ferrari interest in its former engineer, is understood to be wide of the mark.
The switch would follow a similar playbook as the one made by Red Bull's former head of strategy Will Courtenay, who was also made to wait until the start of this season to join McLaren.
Lambiase could still join McLaren before 2028 if the two teams agree a deal for an early release.
Previously, Red Bull also lost chief designer Rob Marshall to the papaya squad. Other senior figures to move on from the Austrian outfit in recent years include tech chief Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, CEO Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko.
Lambiase's impending Red Bull exit comes against the backdrop of four-time world champion Verstappen mulling over his own future in the series, having been disillusioned with 2026's all-new technical regulations.
Verstappen's current Red Bull deal expires at the end of 2028, but the Dutchman is known to have various exit clauses that can be triggered as early as this summer if he wanted to get out sooner.
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Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports analyst Martin Brundle has argued that while Max Verstappen's exit from the championship would be a huge loss, F1 would "move on".
The four-time champion has hinted that he could retire from F1 earlier than expected after failing to enjoy the new regulations. He is under contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028, but could activate a performance clause in his contract to leave earlier.
While discussing Verstappen's latest threats to retire on the Sky Sports F1 Show, Brundle claimed that the comments from the Dutchman were "getting a bit boring" and that he should "either go or stop talking about it".
"Max is very unfiltered, isn't he? He always has been. And he's talked a lot for a long time about 'I'm not in this for the long haul. I'm not going to be hanging around here in my 40s' or whatever," Brundle said.
"Max would say it's getting a bit boring now. I think it's getting a bit boring with what he's saying. Either go or stop talking about it, because it is what it is.
"You've got to make the most of it. I would hugely miss his talent, his generational speed, and his car control is something that very few people in the history of motorsport have had. It is quite extraordinary."
As Red Bull developed its own powertrains in collaboration with Ford for the new era of regulations, Brundle argued that it is likely that Verstappen's management would have had an exit clause written into his contract to protect him if this wasn't a success.
"And I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that, given they were building their own powertrain for the first time, his management would have put in an exit clause at the end of this year to see how it goes," the former driver continued.
"Mercedes is saying no, there's no place at this particular inn at the moment. So, quite what he would do, I don't know.
"Nobody's indispensable in this business. I've seen a number of amazing people come through this sport who are no longer with us or moved on and done something else, and the sport carries on. The great Murray Walker would be one of them.
"And this goes for any of us. The minute we stop, people will be talking about whoever's doing the job next. There are a number of Antonellis, Bearmans, Lindblads out there who would do the job incredibly well for 1% of the money.
"The sport will just move on if Max decides to go, but he's doing quite a lot of damage meanwhile, but I think we all appreciate that's how Max rock and rolls, but I'd be surprised if he'd really walk away from it.
"It's great to be at the Nurburgring. I've done that. In the paddock, 150 cars on the track. He'll find the 24-hour race quite challenging, quite sketchy, but he's got his own team. He loves that. He loves his sim racing. Do I think he'd just walk away from F1? No, I don't. Providing he can get a car that pleases him."
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Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen’s race engineer at Red Bull Racing, Gianpiero Lambiase, has parted ways with the team and has signed with a rival team in a “multi-million-pound” deal.
Lambiase has been poached by McLaren Racing. This comes less than two years after Lambiase became the head of racing at Red Bull in an internal restructuring in 2024.
Sources have stated that Lambiase agreed to a deal with the Papaya outfit for a huge amount and is set to end his Red Bull journey at the end of 2027.
This also suggests a potential change in McLaren’s leadership structure, especially when you consider team principal Andrea Stella’s rumored move back to Ferrari in the future.
Lambiase’s move could matter a great deal to Verstappen, who has worked with him since his move to Red Bull in May 2016. The two shared a chemistry that led to huge success, helping Verstappen win four championship titles.
Red Bull lost several high-profile personnel to other teams in the last few years, such as Rob Marshall, who joined McLaren, Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, and Jonathan Wheatley to the Audi F1 team.
Now though, the question that remains is whether Verstappen will follow Lambiase and leave Red Bull himself, considering that the four-time world champion’s Red Bull contract ends at the end of 2028.
In addition, Verstappen is not happy with F1’s 2026 regulations, which requires drivers to slow their cars on certain sections to harvest energy. Red Bull is struggling to find pace on the RB22 F1 car, and Verstappen has made it clear that he could walk away from the sport if nothing is done to change it.
MotorBiscuit reported Verstappen’s comments after the Japanese Grand Prix, when he was asked if he was going to quit F1. He said:
“That’s what I’m saying. I’m thinking about everything inside this paddock.
“Privately I’m very happy. You also wait for 24 races. This time it’s 22. But normally 24. And then you just think about is it worth it? Or do I enjoy being more at home with my family? Seeing my friends more when you’re not enjoying your sport?”
In a Wednesday night legal filing, Spire Motorsports and co-owner Jeff Dickerson responded to Joe Gibbs Racing’s motion for expedited fact discovery with retorts that the Toyota flagship organization’s posture has devolved into a series of hypotheticals.
“In a case that is supposed to be about JGR’s ‘crown jewels’ and ‘secret sauce,’ JGR’s primary focus in the preliminary stages of this litigation has quickly collapsed into a run-of-the-mill discovery dispute about text messages for a one-month period between a party and a non-party.
“Finding nothing of value in response to initial expedited discovery, JGR’s talk of ‘past car setups,’ car simulations, and ‘two one-hundredths of an inch [makes the difference]’ has given way to newfound fantasies about what might have been. But a burning desire for evidence that does not exist does not warrant expedited discovery.”
Everything taken directly from the filing is italicized.
As part of its $8 million lawsuit against its former competition director and longtime crew chief, Joe Gibbs Racing is alleging that Gabehart participated in a ‘brazen scheme’ to take trade secrets from JGR to Spire in violation of a non-compete agreement between them. In the week after suing Gabehart, JGR also amended its legal complaint to include Spire.
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Since then, Joe Gibbs Racing has pursued expedited discovery on Gabehart and Spire, which meant asking Judge Susan C. Rodriguez for the right to seek communications and documents pertinent to the lawsuit to address potentially time-sensitive damages.
In this case, JGR believes that Spire has obtained trade secrets from Gabehart and is using that information against them right now during the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. Judge Rodriguez granted a ‘narrow in scope’ expedited discovery order, and while JGR did find some questionable work documents from Gabehart, did not find anything that definitely suggested the sharing of proprietary data.
It did force Gabehart to disclose that he had deleted text messages with Dickerson from before November 15 and that Dickerson’s same text messages with Gaebhart were lost as part of a 30-day auto delete feature that was only turned off once the suit was filed in March.
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So now Joe Gibbs Racing has asked Judge Rodriguez for a second round of expedited discovery, which Gabehart largely rejected earlier on Wedneday and Spire echoed with its own filing.
“JGR has already sought expedited discovery once, and now, dissatisfied with the results, presses an even broader motion—all while the parties are negotiating an expedited scheduling order that will govern this entire case. JGR specifically seeks expansive, expedited, one-sided discovery from Spire, Dickerson, and even Spire’s competitors … JGR fails to establish that ‘good cause’ exists to depart from the normal merits-based discovery timeline.
“JGR claims expedited discovery is necessary to identify the contents and assess the recoverability of the missing texts and prevent future spoliation, but its sweeping requests— untethered to those objectives and despite Spire’s robust preservation efforts, which JGR has never challenged—are not tailored to those goals.
“JGR thus fails to show any irreparable harm from waiting until merits discovery begins. Further, piecemeal, one-sided discovery would only add unnecessary cost and inefficiency for both sides, especially where Spire’s preservation efforts eliminate any risk of evidentiary loss. The Court should deny JGR’s motion.”
Merits-based discovery is the standard fact discovery procedure that has yet to take place, with JGR, Spire and Gabehart each asking Judge Rodriguez for an expedited process to reach a trial as soon as possible this year in the absence of a settlement.
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Earlier in the day, Gabehart’s filing offered a willingness to subpoena his own cellular provider for his missing text messages, because ‘I have nothing to hide’ but that he had not yet received a response. Spire submitted a declaration from a forensics analyst under retainer, Kevin Clarke, who testified that the text messages were not recoverable from Dickerson’s devices.
These messages, both individuals say, were deleted prior to the lawsuit being filed and before either Dickerson or Gabehart suggested they had any reason to believe they would be subject to litigation.
JGR disputes that, of course, arguing in court and in legal filings that its legal department called Dickerson in December warning Spire to not interfere with the contractual non-compete period between it and Gabehart.
For his part, Gabehart said JGR violated its non-compete period by not paying him. JGR said it stopped paying him under the belief that Gabehart was conspiring with Spire. It also maintains its contract with Gabehart allowed for a 90-day cure or remedy period.
That’s to be argued further in court.
Like Gabehart, Spire’s legal response says it has agreed to subpoena Dickerson’s wireless provider for call records and text message logs but says Joe Gibbs Racing ‘inexplicably refused’ unless Spire also consents to a series of third-party subpoenas on representatives from Trackhouse Racing, Haas Factory Team and Rick Ware Racing.
Also like Gabehart earlier in the day, Spire’s legal position is that if the court mandates a third-party subpoena on third-parties like the above team representatives and Dickerson, Judge Rodriguez should also allow reciprocal third-party subpoenas and discovery against every JGR employee that has filed declarations over the past month.
“If the Court authorizes expedited third-party discovery of Dickerson’s personal devices, the Court should authorize reciprocal third-party discovery of communications contained on personal devices belonging to JGR’s owners and employees, including Joe Gibbs, Heather Gibbs, Tim Carmichael, Dave Alpern, Toni Rogers, Eric Schaffer, Denny Hamlin, Todd Berrier, and Walter Brown.
“To do otherwise would permit JGR to avoid the very expedited discovery it now seeks to impose on Dickerson. Indeed, three weeks ago, it was JGR who argued forcefully that expedited third-party discovery is unwarranted at this stage.”
To wit, both Gabehart and Spire are calling Joe Gibbs Racing intellectually and legally dishonest in pursuing third-party discovery and subpoenas on a basis it also suggests should not apply to its own employees.
Joe Gibbs Racing specifically is asking for third-party subpoenas of the following individuals from the court believing that Dickerson has communicated with them in some form or shared trade secrets with them:
Joe Custer, Haas Factory Team presdient Justin Marks, Trackhouse founding co-owner Todd Meredith, Trackhouse president of Racing Operations Rick Ware, Rick Ware Racing founding owner Tommy Baldwin, Rick Ware Racing competition directorIn his declaration, Dickerson said it was untrue but also illogical that he would share any advantage with rival teams that aren’t even the one organization (Hendrick Motorsports) that Spire does have a technical alliance with.
From Dickerson’s new declaration:
“I have never shared JGR’s trade secrets or confidential information with any of these individuals or their teams. I do not possess JGR’s trade secrets, so could not have shared them.
“Putting aside that I do not have and never have had any JGR trade secrets or confidential information, and JGR has not shown any evidence to the contrary, these teams are Spire’s competitors. The notion that I would share any JGR trade secrets with Spire’s competitors is frankly preposterous, because Spire actively competes against these teams. That is why Spire itself does not share any of its own data directly with these competitor teams. JGR knows this.
“Spire does share certain of its own trade secrets and confidential information with its technical alliance partner, Hendrick Motorsports. Spire does not share any trade secrets or confidential information with any other General Motors race teams, including Haas Factory Team,Trackhouse Racing, and Rick Ware Racing. Hendrick Motorsports is widely considered the most successful team in NASCAR history.
“Notably, I understand that JGR has not sought any discovery from Hendrick Motorsports, which is the only entity Spire shares any of Spire’s data with.”
Translation, Dickerson is challenging JGR, if it truly believes Spire is using trade secreted information from the Toyota flagship, it is more likely that Hendrick Motorsports would be the one that would know … and not Haas, Trackhouse and Ware.
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