“I need these things too” – Alex Bowman opens up about his  vacation….

Alex Bowman really enjoyed learning the dirt Sprint Car game over the past couple of seasons but he is more than likely retired from racing 410s until his NASCAR career comes to a close.

Bowman broke his T3 vertebrae during a High Limit Sprint Car Series event at 34 Raceway, a 3/8-mile semi-banked clay track, in West Burlington, Iowa on April 25. His birthday. The incident cost him three weeks of seat time in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 and ultimately cost him a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Denny Hamlin suffered a similar spinal injury in March 2013 at Auto Club Speedway and says he didn’t feel normal until the season finale that year in November at Homestead.

“I felt pretty good until I hit the front stretch chicane here,” Bowman said on Saturday after practice at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. “I missed it a bit and made my life a little bit harder.

“I feel pretty good though. While I get sore here and there. I’m in good shape physically right now. I went for a 10-mile run this week and felt normal. I’m doing things I was doing before that I couldn’t do for a bit. I’m looking forward to improving on that the rest of the year.”

For the most part, Alex Bowman said he doesn’t feel any pain in the car but the road courses are the obvious exceptions.

“After the Indy Road Course, I was sore for a few days,” Bowman said. “That’s just from the huge braking zones but I have felt pretty good beyond that.”