Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon says that the group didn’t see something they have been comfy sufficient to construct an enchantment round for Alex Bowman and the No. 48 group.
Bowman was disqualified from Sunday’s race on the Charlotte Roval as a result of his Chevrolet was too gentle in post-race inspection. There have been no particulars from NASCAR or Hendrick Motorsports concerning how far out of tolerance the automobile was, or what brought about it to be too gentle. After crossing the end line 18th, Bowman was moved to final place within the ending order and credited with one level for the occasion.
However essentially the most vital penalty was Bowman being eradicated from the NASCAR Cup Sequence playoffs. Bowman fell behind Joey Logano on factors after the penalty, which moved the Crew Penske driver again into the Spherical of 8.
“After we checked out all of the components and also you noticed early on in that race the 48 automobile launched up into the air and obtained into the wall, and also you simply have a look at this race on the whole and the quantity of contact, we wished to essentially examine the automobile totally to see was there sufficient harm or was there one thing that obtained dislodged from the automobile,” Gordon instructed SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“NASCAR was nice via the entire course of; you may’t actually examine a lot of it on the racetrack, so we weren’t actually certain, however they took it over to the tech middle and checked out it yesterday and totally examined it and didn’t discover something.”
Bowman ran over the curbing on the exit of the frontstretch chicane, launched into the air, and landed within the tri-oval. The momentum of the incident took Bowman to the skin wall, which he hit with the precise facet of his Chevrolet.
“Fairly actually, it’s simply a kind of issues the place NASCAR has minimal pre-race and minimal post-race weights and our groups, to be able to simply make the perfect performing race automobiles each week for our drivers, we all know that we’ve obtained to remain as near these minimums as doable,” Gordon continued. “On this case, the No.48 automobile, they only reduce it too shut and missed it.
“In order that’s on us, and fairly embarrassed by it and really disappointing after what was wanting like a historic day and one of the crucial thrilling days that we’ve had the racetrack, and it being a house race and all the pieces, and celebrating in victory and all 4 (advancing) and that every one obtained wiped away.
“We checked out all of the details and we didn’t really feel there was something that we felt comfy interesting and we’re going to maneuver on.”
Bowman is the one Hendrick Motorsports driver who’s now not championship-eligible. Till inspection was full, Hendrick Motorsports accounted for half of the eight drivers advancing into the third spherical of the postseason, with teammate Kyle Larson having received Sunday’s race.
“We have been celebrating till about 6 p.m. Sunday,” Gordon mentioned. “It was most likely one of many biggest days within the 40-year historical past of Hendrick Motorsports with the win by the No.5, a house race, and what we thought was getting all 4 automobiles getting via to the subsequent spherical and making historical past.
“However clearly fairly disenchanted to listen to the information that we failed on the weights on the post-race inspection. It’s fairly devastating with all of the arduous work and energy that’s put in. Actually disenchanted that that occurred.”
Gordon admitted one of many largest causes it’s robust to swallow is due to the efficiency of Bowman and his group. Bowman, previous to the disqualification, had earned essentially the most factors of all playoff drivers. His common end in six playoffs races (earlier than the disqualification) was twelfth.
