The round of 12 eliminator at the Charlotte ROVAL ‘almost’ became a historic day for Hendrick Motorsports. How great would it have been to have half of your cars among the top 8? As HMS celebrated Kyle Larson’s victory and all its cars in the next round. NASCAR dropped the truth bomb with the inspection results! Alex Bowman failed to pass the post-race weight inspection, resulting in his disqualification.

The #48 car finished 18th, yet managed to bag enough points to stay above the elimination zone. Bowman has had a great playoff season so far, and his fans have been hoping for HMS to appeal the penalty. But recently the team released a statement stating that they would not appeal it. Recently, vice president for HMS and NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon opened up about the team’s blunder.

Jeff Gordon reveals HMS’s stand on the Alex Bowman disqualification

NASCAR’s Cup Series managing director Brad Moran explained their ruling process. NASCAR deemed the #48 car to be lighter than the pre-race inspection numbers. Morgan, who detailed the process in a social media video, talked about how they refueled the car and examined the water systems to ensure it maintained the same weight as at the start of the race. NASCAR also gives teams a small margin to operate for the weights. Despite all this, Bowman’s car failed the test, ending his championship hopes.

Moran in the video said, “It still didn’t meet the weight…They are allowed a half percent of weight break, which is about 17 pounds, give or take, and it was more than that.” The weight reduction was enormous, puzzling the NASCAR community as well as HMS about the exact reason behind it. Bowman’s car launched at the curb in the race, leading to some believing a part must have fallen off. However, according to Jeff Gordon, nothing conclusive came out of their internal inspection, pointing to that being the reason.

According to the veteran, HMS trod too close to the margins, leading them to cross it. In a recent conversation with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Gordon said, “Quite honestly it is one of those things where NASCAR has minimum pre-race, minimum post-race weights and our change in order to 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 and in this case, the #48 car they just cut it too close and missed it and that’s on us.”

This has cost Bowman what could have been his career’s best Cup Series season ever. Often overshadowed in the star lineup of HMS, Bowman really outshone his teammates this time in the playoffs. In the first round, Bowman scored the highest number of points among all 16 playoff drivers. Throughout the playoffs, he showed consistency by finishing thrice in the top 10 amongst the six races, the same as current playoff leader Kyle Larson.

With Bowman’s form coupled with Larson’s past dominance in the next three races, William Byron entering the next round in the 4th position as well, and Elliot only -9 points below the cut line, a solid third round could have made the Championship 4 historic and unprecedented. Gordon was disappointed, as the team missed the possibility.

Gordon felt embarrassed and detailed plans to avoid blunders

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Further in the conversation, Gordon said, “Pretty embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what was looking like a historical day and one of the most exciting days we’ve had on a race track, being the home race and everything.” You have got to feel it for Bowman, who, after bagging a playoff spot in the Chicago street race, has remained consistent. When everyone thought he was just another driver benefiting from the ‘win it and you are in’ rule. Counting on him to be the first one to be knocked out, he defied the odds and stayed put as heavyweights, and former Cup Series champions Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski got knocked out.

Feeling bummed out for the #48 said, Jeff Gordon also added, “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.”

However, now perhaps the goal would be to get the remaining three in the final four. It is a known fact that all teams in the competition play with the tolerances set by NASCAR. However, this incident will become a precedent for how careful one needs to be, especially when so much is at stake. How does HMS plan to avoid these blunders?

“That’s what we do now. 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,” Gordon added.

What do you think about the Alex Bowan incident?