Hendrick Motorsports vice president Jeff Gordon said Alex Bowman's car failing post-race inspection after Sunday's race at the Charlotte Roval was “at our expense.”
“I'm quite embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what looked like a historic day and one of the most exciting days we've had at the racetrack, being a home race and everything, and celebrating in Victory Lane and then all four (promotion) until the next round) and everything was wiped out,” Gordon said Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Hendrick Motorsports Celebration Kyle Larson won on Sunday and that all four cars advanced to Round 8.
Everything changed when NASCAR disqualified Bowman's car for failing to meet the minimum weight after the race. Bowman crossed the finish line in 18th place, which put him nine points clear of the cut line. The disqualification resulted in him finishing 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 has chosen not to appeal the penalty.
“We looked at all the facts and there wasn't anything that we found compelling, so we'll move on,” Gordon said.
Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal disqualification decision against Alex Bowman following 'unavoidable' 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 come close to the minimum weight required for a race.
“We know that our teams, in order to provide our drivers with the highest performing race cars every weekend, must stick to these minimum requirements as much as possible,” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “In this case of car 48, they just cut it too close and missed it. It's up to us.”
The penalty ended Bowman's playoff streak. He scored the most points in the first round. He finished in the top ten three times in the first six playoff races.
“There are a lot of factors that make this difficult to swallow,” Gordon said. “But one of the keys is the performance of Team 48 and what Alex has done. The team put a lot of pressure on them. They were building this team, gaining more depth and feeling more comfortable with each other. Alex is healthy this year.
“They win in Chicago, they make the playoffs, and they perform at a high level throughout the playoffs. You hate to take away that momentum and opportunity, and I know they're disappointed too. … These guys can score a lot of points and climb high (in the rankings), keep the momentum going, win races, carry it over to next season and hopefully start the season well.”
Gordon was asked what the organization is doing to avoid a repeat of this for the remaining teams left in the playoffs.
“That's what we're doing now,” he said. “There were multiple meetings with (president and CEO) Jeff Andrews, (vice president of competition) Chad Knaus, crew chiefs and car chiefs. We're going to evaluate and probably adjust our procedures, our processes.
“We know that teams are exceeding tolerances. …I know we are not alone. All teams do this to stay as competitive as possible every weekend. We need to look at all these processes and procedures to see how close we are to this. … The most important thing is to make sure all four of our cars moving forward can meet those tolerances.”
