Jeff Gordon: Hendrick Motorsports 'Embarrassed' by Alex Bowman ROVAL DQ
Alex Bowman began the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by having to dismiss an onslaught of rumors suggesting his seat would be otherwise occupied in 2025. Despite what seemed like a major distraction, the driver of the No. 48 has been rock-solid.
At least in that respect, nothing changed for Bowman in the Bank of America ROVAL 400, bringing home a solid top 20 result and winning the race’s second stage. At the time, that was more than enough to advance to the semi-final round of the post-season.
The jubilation felt by Alex Bowman and Hendrick Motorsports – who had just advanced four cars into the ‘Round of 8’ in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs – quickly washed away once the team was informed by NASCAR that the Ally Financial Chevrolet was too light in post-race inspection.
Several people, including NASCAR, expected an appeal from the championship-winning organization, considering it was the only option remaining for Bowman to advance to the penultimate round of the Playoffs and take back the final spot, which was awarded to Joey Logano after the No. 48 was dropkicked to 38th.
On Monday, Hendrick Motorsports revealed that it wouldn’t appeal the disqualification, with a team statement revealing that after an investigation, it was found that there wasn’t enough of a buffer to meet the post-race weight requirement. Although unintentional, the team dictated that the infraction was indeed avoidable.
Jeff Gordon, Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday to discuss the disqualification and the team’s decision to not appeal.
“When we looked at all the factors, and you saw early on in the race the No. 48 launched up into the air and got into the wall,” said Gordon. “You just look at this race in general and the amount of contact – we wanted to really inspect the car wholly, to see if there was damage or was there something that got dislodged from the car.”
“NASCAR was great throughout the whole process, you can’t really inspect much of it at the racetrack, so we weren’t really sure, but they took it to the [NASCAR R&D] Center [on Monday] and looked at it thoroughly and examined it and didn’t find anything,” Gordon added.
An appeal, if requested by Hendrick Motorsports, would have had to be heard this week, prior to Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which serves as the opening race in the ‘Round of 8’.
“It’s just one of those things where NASCAR has minimum pre-race and post-race weights and our teams, in order to make the best-performing racecars every weekend for our drivers, we know that we’ve got to stay as close to those minimums as possible, and in this case, the No. 48 car, they just cut it too close and missed it, so that’s on us.
"Pretty embarrassed by it, and pretty disappointing after what was looking like a historic day, and one of the most exciting days we've had."
- Jeff Gordon, Vice Chairman, HMS
Gordon says that this error, although unintentional, has triggered a series of meetings between competition officials Jeff Andrews, Chad Knaus, and the crew chiefs and car chiefs of each of the team’s four NASCAR Cup Series entries, to make sure things like this don’t continue happening.
“We know that teams push the tolerances, that’s what makes competitive race teams and we’re not alone, all the teams do this to stay as competitive as you can possible be every single weekend, and you have to look at all those processes and procedures to see how close we’re cutting it.
The most important thing going forward, according to the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion turned executive at Hendrick Motorsports, is that the team’s entries remain in compliance throughout the closing weeks of the season, as Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and William Byron fight for a NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Sadly, for Bowman and the entire No. 48 team, led by Blake Harris, that opportunity has been thwarted by Sunday’s post-race inspection woes, which has taken the Tucson, Arizona-native – who before the DQ had earned the most points through the first six races of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs – out of the fight.
If there’s a silver lining in all of this, it’s that the No. 48 team has gotten on-track to be among the most competitive in NASCAR’s premier division, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed according to Gordon.
“There’s a multitude of factors that make it tough to swallow, but one of the keys is the performance of the No. 48 team, what Alex [Bowman] has done, the team has had a lot of pressure on them, they’ve been building that team up, building more depth, getting comfortable with one another, Alex being healthy this year. They go win at Chicago and get themselves in the Playoffs and performed at a high level throughout the playoffs. So you hate to take the momentum and opportunity away. I know they’re disappointed as well.”
"You can go gain a lot of points and get high up, and keep the momentum going and win races, and takethat into next season, and hopefully get next year started right."
