Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon said that Alex Bowman’s car failing post-race inspection after Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval was “on us.”
“Pretty embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what was looking like a historical day and one of the most exciting days that we’ve had at the racetrack, being a home race and everything and celebrating in Victory Lane and then all four (advancing to the next round) and that all got wiped away,” Gordon said Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Hendrick Motorsports celebrated Kyle Larson’s win Sunday and that all four of its cars advanced to the Round of 8.
Things changed when NASCAR disqualified Bowman’s car for not meeting the minimum weight after the race. Bowman crossed the finish line 18th, putting him nine points above the cutline. The disqualification dropped him to last in the 38-car field. The loss of points eliminated him from the playoffs and allowed Joey Logano to advance to the next round.
Hendrick Motorsports chose not to appeal the penalty.
“We looked at all the facts, and we didn’t feel like there’s really anything that we felt comfortable appealing and we’re going to move on,” Gordon said.
Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal DQ to Alex Bowman after “avoidable” infraction
The disqualification eliminated Alex Bowman from the playoffs, allowing Joey Logano to take the final transfer spot.
Gordon told “The Morning Drive” that teams often are near the minimum weight for a race.
“Our teams, in order to just make the best performing race cars every weekend for our drivers, we know that we’ve got to stay as close to those minimums as possible,” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “In this case, the 48 car, they just cut it too close and missed it. That’s on us.”
The penalty ended a strong run in the playoffs for Bowman. He scored the most points in the first round. He had three top-10 finishes in the first six races of the playoffs.
“There’s a multitude of factors that make this tough to swallow,” Gordon said. “But one of the keys is the performance of the 48 team and what Alex has done. That team has had a lot of pressure on them. They’ve been building this team up, getting more depth, getting more 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 through the playoffs. So you hate to take that momentum and opportunity away, and I know they’re disappointed as well. … Those guys can go gain a lot of points and get high up (in the standings) and keep the momentum going and win races and take that into next season and, hopefully, get the season started off right.”
Gordon was asked what the organization does to avoid the situation from being repeated for any of its other teams that remain in the playoffs.
“That’s what we do now,” he said. “Lot of meetings have happened with (President and General Manager) Jeff Andrews, (Vice President of Competition) Chad Knaus, the crew chiefs, the car chiefs. We’re going to assess, probably adjust our procedures, our processes.
“We know that teams, they push the tolerances. … I know we’re not alone. All the teams do this in order to stay as competitive as we can possibly be every single weekend. You’ve got to look at all those processes and procedures to see how close are we cutting it. … The most important thing is making sure that all four of our cars moving forward are going to be able to meet those tolerances.”
