Next Four Out: Bowman Disqualified, Shaking Up Playoff Field

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

CONCORD, N.C. – Coming into Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the four drivers below the cut line in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs stood as Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, and Chase Briscoe.

 Some were within striking distance in the points, while the others were in must-win territory, but when all was said and done, it appeared that those were the four that would be axed from title contention.

That is until post-race inspection took place and Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was found to be underweight, therefore resulting in a disqualification and erasing his 18th place result that was enough to get him into the next round of the Playoffs.

With Bowman’s disqualification, Joey Logano, who appeared to lose out on advancing when the checkered flag flew now moves into the top-eight in points and gets new life in his hunt for another Cup title.

“We normally run the top five and all the Playoff cars through our inspection station. That includes the OSS, which measures all the body and the mechanical measurements. We run it through the USS, which is all the underbody scanning as well as the weights,” NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran explained.

“We do full inspection on first and second with a cutoff race. We also do a full inspection of the last in for the transfer into the Round of 8. That would be owner and drivers. While we did that tonight, all top five were Playoff cars. As we’re running them through, unfortunately, the 48 had an issue. Did not meet minimum weight. So, we put the car to the side. We continue on.

“We let them have the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the water system and add water. So we give ’em every opportunity to make minimum weight. We run ’em back through. Unfortunately, they were light again. They are allowed a 0.5% weight break, which is for usage of fluids and so on. That’s about 17 pounds.

“We backed the car back off the scales, run it back on and then unfortunately it was the same weight. So, the car had a weight issue. All the other cars cleared inspection, 48 didn’t, and that ends up in a disqualification.”

With the high probability of an appeal coming, Moran was hesitant to give exact details on how far off the weights were off in Bowman’s car, but explained the No. 48 car would be headed to the NASCAR R&D Center until the appeal

“Obviously we’re gonna have an appeal process that’s in play, so we’re not getting into all the details of the car,” Moran said.

“The car did not meet our rule for minimum weight. If the appeal happens, it’ll be expedited. So it’ll probably happen in the next couple of days. So I really can’t get into details of all the details of the information.

“The car was light. And that’s where we ended up. We’ll be taking the 48 car back to the R&D center tonight and that’s where it’ll be until we’re done with everything.”

Bowman’s Bad Luck is Logano’s Gain

Of the four drivers that started the day on the outside looking in, Logano was the only one that had a legitimate shot at pointing his way in, especially when Tyler Reddick ran into issues of his own and he was able to capitalize to move into the top-eight as a result.

Scoring stage points in both of the first two stages, Logano was up by as many as 16-points after the second stage, but as the final stage played out, it became clear that it was going to come down to a battle between him and Reddick for the final transfer spot.

Reddick was chewing his way through the field after getting the damage on his car fixed, while Logano was just hoping to hold on, running inside the top-five as the laps clicked away.

Then the final caution flag flew on Lap 82 when the left front wheel came off Austin Dillon’s car, stacking the field up back up for a restart with 26 laps remaining.

Logano still held the points advantage on the restart, but lap by lap, Reddick continued his march forward, eventually moving into a tie and then surpassing him with eight laps to go.

From there, Logano could only hope for a caution to be able to mix things up for him to have a shot at reclaiming his place in the Round of 8. But it was just not meant to be for the Team Penske pilot as he would fall four points shy of advancing.

Until Bowman’s disqualification, which now has him advancing.

“I was just trying to maintain the best I could and honestly was praying for a caution because that was the only thing that could stir it up enough to where a lot of what-ifs can happen,” Logano said after the race, but before the disqualification was announced.

“Congrats to them. They fought hard, changing toe links and all that and were still able to make it. It just wasn’t meant to be. You can start looking back at different points in the season to gather four points pretty easily. One race in particular. Talladega we didn’t do a good enough job scoring Stage points and that is where a lot of it lies.”

Valiant Drive Just Not Enough for Cindric

It was win or bust for Austin Cindric on Sunday and the No. 2 team certainly made a run at it.

Gaining stage points in each of the first two stages, Cindric showed off his road course prowess throughout the day, but after climbing as high as fourth-place, he hit a plateau and could go no further without a caution – the same caution that his teammate Logano would have benefited from.

That caution never came and he would finish in fourth-place, the best of the bubble drivers. A valiant effort, but just not enough.

“A better performance and finishes at Talladega and Kansas,” Cindric said of what more he needed to be able to advance on in the Playoffs.

“We had the speed and that is the encouraging thing and the exciting thing but today we needed it all. We had a great car. We had a great finish. My guys called a great strategy and we got points in both Stages, all the things that are hard to do in a Cup race, but we did those things and were capable of doing those things in the two prior races.

“That is what this format is. It is difficult. I think for us, having a better regular season, having a bit better of a buffer would definitely help. I am proud of everyone. I feel like we are getting into a rhythm here. I am proud of the team and looking forward to trying to spoil some races and support our teammates the rest of the way.”

Bad Breaks Brakes for Suarez

The driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet came into Sunday’s race needing to make up a 20-point deficit to the cut off line, which more or less meant he would likely need to win to be able to advance.

However, those dreams of moving on came to a screeching halt at the end of Stage 2 when brake issues that Suarez had been fighting all day forced him to pit road for his team to try and diagnose the issue. But the problem would only get worse as the race wore on and he would have to just log laps hoping some kind of chaos would break out for him to be able to overcome the problems.

That would not happen and Suarez would finish a dismal 31^st place, a lap off the lead, officially dropping him out of the Playoff race.

“Honestly, the fact that we’re out of the playoffs, that hurts a little bit,” said Suarez. “But for me personally, it hurts way more the way we got eliminated.

“This entire No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevy team works really hard to bring really fast racecars to the track each weekend. This weekend, we just didn’t have it. I feel like we were going to make a little headway and we were right there, and then we had brake issues.

“It’s just painful. It’s painful to be out the of the playoffs this way.. that’s the part that’s more painful than anything. If we would have finished fifth and I was out of the playoffs, I would be happy. We worked really hard, but for some reason it didn’t show today.”

Briscoe’s Cinderella Run Comes to an End

Chase Briscoe scored a walk-off win to punch his ticket into the Playoffs and on Sunday, it was going to take another to keep the run going for him and Stewart-Haas Racing in their final season together.

But unfortunately for Briscoe, that run would end just 41 laps into the 109 lap race.

Contact on the track early in Stage 2 would cut down a tire, after which he was able to get to pit road for new tires, but that was only the start to his problems.

On lap 41, he would return to pit road, noting an inability to turn, which was diagnosed as a terminal issue for his No. 14 Ford and he would have to retire from the race.

“The steering rack or something broke. I don’t really know to be honest,” said Briscoe. “Realistically we probably weren’t going to move on anyway but on those restarts in Turn 7 we all kind of get stacked up and they all kind of stopped in front of me and it ripped the wheel out of my hand.

“I could turn to the left but as soon as I got to the right-hander, my car just went straight. I about hit the wall on the backstretch chicane, and then on the front stretch chicane, I hit the 3 car just because I literally couldn’t turn.

“It is an unfortunate way for it to all come to an end. It is part of it, part of racing. We just didn’t have a very good three weeks when it all boils down to it.”

Briscoe added that his elimination was tough for him, but more so for everyone at SHR with the team closing its doors at season’s end. The entire Playoff run was seemingly injecting new life into the team as they lived through Briscoe and now it’s all over.

“It stings,” Briscoe added. “Not even really for myself, just all the employees at Stewart-Haas. They were all kind of living through the 14 car, and the environment we have had these last few weeks has been really exciting to be a part of.

“I hate that it is coming to an end. I know what that means for Stewart-Haas not to be racing for a championship anymore. That was keeping a lot of people, honestly, in the building. Hopefully, the repercussions aren’t too bad, but we have four races left, and we are going to give it everything we’ve got.”