Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday morning and detailed the decision to not to appeal the disqualification that eliminated Alex Bowman from the Cup Series playoffs.
The No. 48 car was too light across the scales on Sunday after the race, with every playoff car being inspected since it was an elimination race, and Gordon said the team concluded they made a costly mistake.
Gordon said they also determined that nothing significant was dislodged from the car when it ramped over the frontstretch chicane.
“When we looked at all the factors and you saw early on in that race the 48 car launched up into the air and got into the wall, and you just look at this race in general and the amount of contact, we wanted to really inspect the car fully to see was there enough damage or was there something that got dislodged from the car,” Gordon said. “NASCAR was great through the whole process; you can’t really inspect much of it at the racetrack, so we weren’t really sure, but they took it over to the tech center and looked at it yesterday and thoroughly examined it and didn’t find anything.”
NASCAR has a minimum weight for each car based on a driver’s weight but also provides a tolerance of .5, which amounts to 17 lbs, and teams get as close to that tolerance number each week in the name of performance.
The Hendrick 48 car needed to be at 3,383 lbs.
That is where Gordon said the team simply missed it.
“Quite honestly it’s just one of those things where NASCAR has minimum pre-race and minimum post-race weights and our teams, in order to just make the best performing race cars every week for our drivers, we know that we’ve got to stay as close to those minimums as possible,” Gordon continued. “In this case, the 48 car, they just cut it too close and missed it.
“So, that’s on us and pretty embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what was looking like a historical day and one of the most exciting days that we’ve had the racetrack and it being a home race and everything, and celebrating in victory and all four and that all got wiped away.
“We looked at all the facts and we didn’t feel there was anything that we felt comfortable appealing and we’re going to move on.”
Bowman had been one of feel good stories of the playoffs. Under scrutiny that he may be at risk of losing his ride after next season, Bowman has been one of the best performing drivers of the playoffs. Team owner Rick Hendrick cited his driver’s health, that Bowman is now completely healed from the back injury he suffered last season.
Gordon echoed those sentiments on Tuesday morning.
“There’s a multitude of factors that make this tough to swallow,” Gordon said. “But one of the keys is the performance of the 48 team and what Alex has done. That team has had a lot of pressure on them. They’ve been building this team up, getting more depth, getting more comfortable with one another. Alex being healthy this year.
“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.”