NASCAR playoffs shaken up after Alex Bowman is disqualified in Charlotte: What to know

The chaos that was promised at Charlotte Motor Speedway arrived a bit later than expected.

NASCAR informed reporters late Sunday — about two hours after the conclusion of the elimination race on Charlotte’s Roval — that it had disqualified the 48 car for failing post-race inspection. NASCAR said the car didn’t meet the sanctioning body’s weight requirements.

The decision erases all the points accumulated by Alex Bowman, the driver of the 48 car who originally made the cut to the Round of 8. Bowman, by vice of his amended 38th-place finish, has now fallen out of the top 8 — and, subsequently, out of playoff contention.

Joey Logano, the driver of the No. 22 car for Team Penske who was the closest to the cutoff line, has now advanced in Bowman’s place.

A NASCAR spokesperson said the sanctioning body expects an appeal from Hendrick Motorsports.

Hendrick released a statement shortly after the announcement: “We are working to understand the issue and will make a decision Monday about whether to submit an appeal.”

NASCAR Cup Series director Brad Moran spoke to reporters outside the NASCAR hauler once the decision was announced to reporters Sunday. He provided a glimpse into the sport’s post-race procedures.

“We normally run the top 5 and all the playoff cars through our inspection station,” Moran said. “That includes the Optical Scanning Station (OSS), which measures all the body and the mechanical measurements. We run it through the Underbody Scanning Station (USS), which is all the underbody scanning, as well as the weights.

“We do full inspection on first and second (place cars). With a cutoff race, we also do a full inspection of the last-in for the transfer of the Round of 8.”

Moran went on to say that the 48 car did not meet minimum weight on first run-through. NASCAR let the team fuel the car and make other adjustments before running the car through the weight inspection process again, Moran said.

“We gave them every opportunity to make minimum weight,” Moran said. “We ran them back through. Unfortunately they were light again.”

Moran did not say how light the car was, citing the fact that he couldn’t get into too many details with an appeal likely coming. He did, however, say that cars are allowed a “0.5% weight-break, which is for usage of fluids and so on,” which comes out to about 17 pounds.

“All the other cars cleared inspection,” Moran said. “That ends in a disqualification.”

The 48 car will be taken back to the R&D center in Concord on Sunday and will remain there until a final decision is levied.

Who now advances in NASCAR Cup Series playoffs?

The announcement certainly dulls a great day for Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR’s winningest team that for a few hours thought it had sent all four of its Cup drivers into the Round of 8. (Kyle Larson, the winner of this year’s Charlotte Roval, is one of those HMS drivers.)

But by the same token, it also flips a difficult day for Team Penske and Logano. The driver of the 22 car and winner of the 2022 Cup Series championship was edged out late by some late-race heroics from Tyler Reddick — the regular-season champion and road-course prodigy who made a run to remember in the final 25 laps of Sunday’s race, passing enough people to point his way in and kick Logano out.

Team Penske now has Logano and Ryan Blaney — the last two Cup champions — in the Round of 8. Those two drivers join Larson, Reddick, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin in the semifinal round of the Cup playoffs.

Bowman, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe have been eliminated from championship contention.