Nearly three hours after Kyle Larson’s victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval seemed to set the Round of 8, the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs dramatically changed.
After apparently advancing with an 18th place and a Stage 2 victory, Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet was disqualified for failing postrace inspection. Relegated to a last place, Bowman received one point for finishing 38th.
He lost 28 points because of the violation, which dropped him from sixth in the points standings to ninth.
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MORE: Click here for Roval results l Click here for the cumulative report l Click here for the penalty report l Click here for race notes
In the drivers standings, Joey Logano moved up from ninth into eighth and back into being eligible for the championship by advancing to the third round.
In the car owner standings, Bowman’s No. 48 Chevy fell to ninth, which moved the No. 45 Toyota of Tyler Reddick up into the eighth and final spot in the Round of 8.
That eliminates the possibility of a split car-driver championship in 2024 (which nearly happened in 2022 when Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevy made the championship round, but the final driver slot went to Chase Elliott. Before Bowman’s disqualification, Reddick had advanced to the Round of 8 in the driver standings, but the final spot in the car owner standings (which pay more than driver points in the season-ending bonus money) had gone to Logano’s No. 22 Ford.
NASCAR disqualifies Alex Bowman’s car, putting Joey Logano back into Round of 8
Alex Bowman’s car did not meet the minimum weight requirement after Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval.
Here is the finishing order at the Charlotte Roval:
1. Kyle Larson
2. Christopher Bell
3. William Byron
4. Austin Cindric
5. Chase Elliott
6. A.J. Allmendinger
7. Shane Van Gisbergen
8. Joey Logano
9. Bubba Wallace
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Tyler Reddick
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Kyle Busch
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. Chris Buescher
18. Todd Gilliland
19. Zane Smith
20. Harrison Burton
21. Martin Truex Jr.
22. Josh Berry
23. Brad Keselowski
24. Daniel Hemric
25. Ryan Preece
26. Justin Haley
27. Kaz Grala
28. Ross Chastain
29. Josh Bilicki
30. Daniel Suarez
31. Noah Gragson
32. Austin Dillon
33. Erik Jones
34. John Hunter Nemechek
35. Ty Gibbs
36. Chase Briscoe
37. Corey LaJoie
38. Alex Bowman
