Fire on Fridays: Hendrick Should’ve Gone To Bat for Alex Bowman

When Alex Bowman left the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, he was firmly advancing to the NASCAR Cup Series’ Round of 8.

By the time he got home, showered and made dinner, he was disqualified from the race and thrown from the Round of 8.

Post-race inspection found Bowman’s No. 48 to be too light, resulting in the driver’s disqualification from the ROVAL. He lost all the points he earned throughout the day, which was enough to eliminate him from the Round of 8.

The disqualification of Bowman was surprising in the moment, and still is. Never has there been a situation in the playoff era where a driver who advanced to the next round was then eliminated following a DQ.

While largely expected to appeal the penalty, Hendrick Motorsports announced it would not appeal and instead accepted the penalty of being thrown from the Round of 8, stating in part, “we simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement.” The team also stated the infraction was unintentional but avoidable.

It seems a little odd to just accept blame without even going through an appeals process. As important as the Round of 8 is, especially for a team that saw all four of its drivers advance before Bowman’s DQ, one would think Hendrick would have fought for Bowman, even if it lost the appeal.

Had Hendrick decided to appeal, the worst that could happen is that … well, nothing happens. It would also get an expedited process, given the importance of the penalty’s impact.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, JR Motorsports appealed a penalty that resulted in the disqualification of Sam Mayer following the previous race at Talladega Superspeedway. Mayer and JRM ultimately lost the appeal, but the appeal was heard before the Charlotte ROVAL so there was no discrepancy heading into the final race of the round.

Not to mention, Bowman has been at the center of Silly Season talks for what seems like years now. Hendrick has no plans to be rid of him, but not even trying to stand up for him, even if the team knows it will lose, is not the greatest way of having his back.

One has to wonder, if it was Kyle Larson or William Byron, one of Bowman’s more successful teammates, if Hendrick still decides against appealing. As they are seen as Championship 4 favorites, it would be more than likely that Hendrick would appeal to try to keep them in the title fight.

Part of the reason Hendrick could’ve appealed was that it looked like parts of the car flew off from underneath Bowman’s No. 48 after he jumped over the frontstretch chicane curbing early in the race.

But that right there might be the sole reason why the team decided against appealing to begin with. If what fell off the car was heavy enough to be the deciding factor in Bowman’s car falling under weight, that might have resulted in a bigger penalty.

At this very racetrack in 2020 (albeit on the oval), a piece of tungsten fell out of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11, resulting in three crew members receiving four-race suspensions. Heavy parts falling off the car are usually something NASCAR doesn’t lightly punish.

If Hendrick appealed and utilized Michael McDowell’s onboard as evidence that the car became damaged, the appeals court might rule that the pieces that fell off were dangerous to the other competitors and levy harsher penalties. Which would make the acceptance of the penalty make more sense — just take the penalties you were given instead of incurring more unnecessarily.

Otherwise, there’s a big question of why Bowman’s own team didn’t even try. Win or lose, appealing such a penalty, with so much at stake, is still worth even a try.

It’s a shame for Bowman and the entire No. 48 team.

They’ve had an underrated season and for it to grind to a halt after thinking they were advancing further toward a championship is heartbreaking, regardless of who the driver is.

On some sort of bright side, not appealing avoids an awkward scenario where perhaps Hendrick wins the appeal, leaving Joey Logano and Team Penske (the benefactors of Bowman’s DQ) irate that they were given a spot just to have it taken away. Then we may have had a 2013 situation where we add Jeff Gordon to the Round of 9 (coincidentally, Gordon owns Bowman’s No. 48).

So while Bowman’s playoff hopes come to a sudden conclusion, Hendrick still has three more drivers in the running for the title, all of which could be considered championship threats.

But it’s still perplexing that it didn’t try harder to get all four back in the hunt.

Anthony Damcott

Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter, among many other duties he takes on for the site. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.

You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.