Inside Alex Bowmans disastrous week after Charlotte Roval DQ

LAS VEGAS — When Alex Bowman departed Charlotte Motor Speedway last Sunday, he thought he had secured a spot into the Round of 8. Then, the next few hours of his life transpired.

During post-race inspection, NASCAR officials found Bowman‘s No. 48 Chevrolet to be too light, not meeting the minimum weight requirement. Two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano was awarded the final spot, clipping Bowman by 20 points.

Bowman had returned home before the disqualification. He received a phone call from his crew chief Blake Harris, who broke the news to his driver. Bowman then tossed his phone into his pool, knowing that it was about to erupt with alerts.

“The next thing I got was [Bob Pockrass‘] tweet and I proceeded to throw my phone in the pool and my phone proceeded to call 9-1-1 and tell them I was in a car crash,” Bowman said on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “My Sunday night wasn‘t very good. It couldn‘t happen to anybody else that way. Just a part of life, moving on and focused on going fast this weekend.”

Because Bowman‘s iPhone lost service at the bottom of his pool, local authorities didn‘t show up when 9-1-1 was alarmed. However, he walked out to his garage on Monday morning and noticed one of the windows on his passenger car was cracked. Later in the week, his roof was leaking and that also needed to be repaired. The good news is his phone is still working.

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“Just not a great 24 hours for me. That‘s part of life,” Bowman added.

With how the last few seasons have gone for Bowman — getting injured in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2022 and breaking his back in a dirt sprint car in the spring of 2023 — he knows how to process rough situations. That prior experience has taught him how to navigate the good and the bad.

Bowman tries to look at the positives, seeing how his career has panned out.

“Most of the [expletive] things that have happened in my life have ended up working out for the better,” he said. “Everything happens for a reason. I just want to move on and continue being successful. We don‘t have a shot at the championship anymore, but still time to do good things the rest of the season.”

The No. 48 team has turned up the wick since the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs began. Bowman tallied the most points of all drivers in the Round of 16 and continued that hot streak to the first race in the Round of 12 at Kansas Speedway. He was involved in the biggest Cup Series wreck in series history at Talladega Superspeedway and then was DQ‘d at the Charlotte Roval to eliminate him from the playoffs.

Now Bowman will have to go through the Round of 8 wondering what if he had advanced. There are still checkered flags to be captured.

“It‘s one of those that‘s probably going to sting for a while and depending on how the rest of the season goes, it will probably determine how quickly I do or don‘t get over it,” he stated. “Some things in life, you don‘t get over but have to figure out how to move on with your life and keep digging from it.”