Tipping the scales? Alex Bowman DQ a weighty issue
Hendrick Motorsports opted not to appeal the Alex Bowman disqualification from the Charlotte road course, an admission that there didn’t appear to be such an extenuating circumstance that they could convince an appeal hearing officer that it didn’t violate the intent of the rule.
HMS thought Sunday it had all four of its cars advance to the Round of 8 until Bowman’s car failed post-race weight requirements. Instead of earning 29 points, the disqualified Bowman earned one point for the event, putting him below the playoff cutline and Joey Logano into the playoffs.
All cars go through pre-race tech and must weigh 3,400-3,500 pounds depending on the weight of the driver (drivers are weighed periodically throughout the year). The top-5 cars, and then in the playoffs, the playoff cars, are weighed post-race. There is a tolerance of 0.5 percent, about 17 pounds, in the post-race inspection to allow for any natural loss of weight from the competition as parts and pieces break and fluid levels can fluctuate.
"Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal the disqualification of the No. 48 car following Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval," the team said in a statement. "NASCAR allows a clear margin to account for the difference in pre- and post-race weight.
"After a thorough review by our team and the sanctioning body, we simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement. Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable. We are extremely disappointed to lose a playoff spot under these circumstances and apologize to our fans and partners."
Whether Hendrick did something uncouth or just is a victim of circumstance can be debated. The sport has a history of ingenious ways to take weight out of the car (and maybe even put it back near the end of the race). Wherever there is a tolerance, teams potentially will do things to get closer to the tolerance level. On pit road, drivers push their speed to the 5 mph tolerance above the speed limit.
There likely are ways to slyly remove weight or change a piece sometime between pre-race tech and the end of the race. Teams have put weight in a helmet bag. Teams have put different air in tires for tech in order to make the car heavier. It’s part of the game. It’s not that no one tries to get the car lighter after they go through tech, it’s just how far they want to get to the line where if something unintended happens, they fail the weight requirement.
NASCAR hasn’t said how much off the Bowman car was in tech, so there’s no way to definitively know how close they were. But the team was allowed to top off fuel and purge and replace its water system. That didn’t help the car make weight, and likely was key to the decision not to appeal as it appeared NASCAR gave Bowman’s team every opportunity to make weight.
It’s unfortunate for Bowman and hard to say how much it helped him, whether the weight of the car was worth the nine points he needed to advance to the next round. But it’s obvious Hendrick folks didn’t see a way where they could— pardon the pun — tip the scales in their favor. So they have paid the price.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
