Post-Race Inspection Foils Hendrick's Dream Round of 8 Scenario
"Bill France told me something one time. He said, Your mind will take you places your body won't go. I'm getting there because I've got a lot of things I want to do and I love to do, but it's just I'm living the dream," Rick Hendrick said in his post-race winner's press conference after Kyle Larson's sixth win of the season in Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
The legendary team owner was elated as his Hendrick Motorsports organization not only won the race, but they had accomplished something that they had never pulled off before. The organization had locked all four of its cars into the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, no easy feat especially given the wild lineup of tracks in the opening two rounds of the Playoffs this season.
But they did it. And they all remained locked in for roughly three hours.
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The dream quickly became a nightmare, as a fevered situation transpired in the NASCAR Cup Series garage during post-race inspection. NASCAR, as it typically does in Playoff elimination races, fully inspected the top-five finishers (all happened to be Playoff drivers) as well as the last driver to advance in the Playoffs, and the first driver eliminated from the Playoffs at the conclusion of the race.
Those cars were all run through the OSS (Optical Scanning Station), the USS (Underbody Scanning Station), and they were weighed.
Including the race winner Larson, who dominated the event to take his series-high sixth win of the year, every car cleared post-race tech -- every car aside from Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet, which was too light on the scales in the inspection.
The upbeat mood in the Hendrick camp quickly shifted to panicked as crew chief Blake Harris and the No. 48 team did everything they could within reason to pass inspection on multiple passes. To their credit, NASCAR gave the No. 48 team every chance to pass inspection.
NASCAR Cup Series Director Brad Moran explained in an availability with the media at the NASCAR hauler after the disqualification became official, which falls in line with the scene I personally witnessed from inside the garage after the race, that the Hendrick Motorsports team was allowed to add additional fuel to the car, as Harris and the team wondered if they were low on fuel, which could have led to the result on the scales. NASCAR also allowed the team to completely flush the cooling system and allowed them to top off the coolant.
"We put the car to the side, and continued on. We let the team fuel the car, they felt they were low on fuel, so we thought, 'why not?' We gave them the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the water system and add water. So, we gave them every opportunity to make minimum weight," Moran explained. "We ran them back through, unfortunately, they were light again."
Moran says teams are given a 0.5% variance in post-race weight from the required weight in pre-race inspection, which amounts to roughly 17 lbs. The No. 48 car came up lighter than the variance allowed, which led to the disqualification.
How far under the weight variance was the No. 48 car? Moran wouldn't elaborate with a potential appeal coming this week.
It was a heartbreaking turn of events, as the driver, who had become the Cinderella Story of the Playoffs, Alex Bowman, by way of a consistent and methodical run through the Round of 16, and the Round of 12, found himself on the outside of the Playoffs looking in, despite leaving the 2.32-mile road course in Concord, North Carolina on Sunday evening thinking his 18th-place run had secured his advancement to the next round of the Playoffs.
Now, there is a chance that Bowman and the No. 48 team could still work back inside of the Playoff cutline if they exercise their right to an appeal, and win the appeal. But as of now, the team is simply still trying to assess what occurred. Once they know that, they'll know whether an appeal would have a chance to be successful.
"We are working to understand the issue and will make a decision Monday about whether to submit an appeal," Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement on social media.
On board footage from Michael McDowell's car, who was directly behind Bowman as the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet hit a turtle curb and launched into the air early in the race, shows something flying off of the No. 48 car in that particular incident.
— Andrew (@Basso488) October 14, 2024
"I didn't crash, and that's the hardest I've ever hit anything in my life," Bowman said prior to post-race inspection of his excursion into the turtle early in the race. Bowman would also say, "I hit hard enough to break a lot of stuff, but glad we didn't."
Alex Bowman told me after the race, when he launched off the curb early in the race it was the hardest he’s ever hit anything. He said he hit it hard enough to damage a lot of stuff. Could something have broken off due to the incident to cause the weight to be low post-race? pic.twitter.com/iKdT7yKeQN
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) October 14, 2024
Could that have been a ballast flying off? If so, that very much could have been what caused the No. 48 to miss weight in post-race inspection. The penalty for the separation of ballast from a NASCAR Cup Series car does not contain a point penalty, but does result in a four-race suspension of the crew chief, car chief, and team engineer.
While that may be a path to getting Bowman back inside of the Playoff field, there are questions as to whether the loss of ballast would excuse a team from the post-race weight requirement. Typically, cars that lose ballast during a race, are discovered during the race and are required to replace the lost ballast before returning to the track.
If a ballast did fall off of Bowman's car, it wasn't noticed by NASCAR Race Control at the time that it happened, which makes this a potentially intriguing situation.
If an appeal does occur, Moran explained due to the Playoff implications of the appeal, it will be expedited and completed in the coming days. But as of now, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who initially missed advancing to the Round of 8 by four measely points to Tyler Reddick, now finds himself back inside of the Playoff field heading into Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
In what has been a wild and wacky NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, une in next week to see the latest epsiode of As the Garage Turns.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.