NASCAR insiders react to Alex Bowman DQ, possible appeal by Hendrick Motorsports

After last night’s postrace inspection in Charlotte, Alex Bowman was disqualified from the race and lost his spot in the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8. Joey Logano advanced in the playoffs as a result, and now we are awaiting word about an appeal from Hendrick Motorsports.

During their live recording of The Teardown, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reacted in real-time to the news. Alex Bowman’s No. 48 did not meet post-race weight requirements and was thus disqualified, losing all points for the Roval race.

This was a major decision from NASCAR.

“What a swing because Bowman has been great, the team has been great,” Bianchi explained. “I asked Rick Hendrick after the race, ‘What have you seen out of Alex Bowman and this team in these playoffs?’ He’s like, ‘Hey, he’s healthy.’ You hear this when drivers have that back injury it takes them about a year, year and a half or so to get their mojo back. New crew chief and it took them a while and it felt like this team was pointing in the right direction and then this. This is huge, this is giant. I am flabbergasted.”

His cohost added how peculiar this violation is. Post-race weight is not usually something you hear about in the modern era.

“And postrace weight, that is not something you hear very often. They did not meet minimum weight, so they had a light car,” said Gluck. “You would think that would be a mistake of some kind, right? Because you know you’re going to be inspected and weighed, right?”

This has so many implications.

Alex Bowman DQ: Hendrick likely to appeal

This disqualification takes Bowman out of the NASCAR Playoffs and moves Joey Logano into the Round of 8. Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 team now advances in the owners championship as well. That could be a big deal at Phoenix.

On The Teardown, Bianchi continued on about the DQ. What could have caused this? And what is Hendrick Motorsports going to do?

“There is something that happened here along the way, either they snuck one through the inspectors or something happened to the car that, I don’t know, it’s fascinating,” said Bianchi. “The appeal by the way will be this week if they do appeal, which I would expect them to appeal.”

We will likely hear something later today about an appeal. Alex Bowman had been one of the best drivers in the postseason. This DQ would throw all of that away.