Kenny Wallace makes opinion clear on whether Jeff Gordon, Rick Hendrick are at fault for Alex Bowman’s disqualification

Retired NASCAR driver and on-screen personality Kenny Wallace weighed in on whether he thinks car owners Rick Hendrick or Jeff Gordon are at fault for Alex Bowman’s disqualification in Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval. The Missouri native believes the co-owners of Hendrick Motorsports aren’t to blame for the penalty that put the driver of the #48 out of the playoffs.

Bowman was disqualified after Sunday’s race for failing post-race inspection due to his Ally Chevrolet not reaching minimum weight. Because of this, the Arizona native lost his original finishing position of 18th and was given an automatic last-place finish. This dropped the 31-year-old below the cut-line to advance to the Round of 8, ending his playoff hopes and giving Joey Logano another chance.

Wallace took to YouTube on Monday to respond to race fans on X who blamed HMS’ higher-ups for the disqualification. The 61-year-old understands why they might point the finger at Hendrick and Gordon but believes those who put the car together are the ones to blame. He said:

“That’s like blaming your boss for something you screwed up in a factory. However, they are the leaders and, in the big responsible world, it’s like the captain of the ship. He’s in control of his men. Well, he’s not. The captain can tell his workers what to do on the ship, but if they mess up, then they mess up. Then, the captain goes, ‘It’s all my fault,” when it wasn’t. That’s the case right here.” (01:44 onwards)

The nine-time Xfinity Series winner went on to say he believes Hendrick and Gordon probably didn’t know about the car being underweight and doesn’t believe they intentionally tried to cheat. Wallace said the #48 team expected the car to get weighed post-race, therefore it was simply a human error on the part of the mechanics.

“Everybody knows their car’s gonna get weighed,” Wallace said. “That’s the number one thing they check all the time. Everybody’s cars get weighed. Alex Bowman and that team, they knew that their car was going to get weighed because they weigh the cars that move on in the points. Here’s what most likely happened: They messed up. Human error.” (02:37)

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HMS has decided to not appeal Alex Bowman’s disqualification

Alex Bowman’s playoff-ending penalty was made official when Hendrick Motorsports released a statement on Monday announcing that they were opting to not try and appeal the disqualification. The team said in the statement:

“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.”

Bowman was having a strong playoff run up to this point. He accumulated the most points in the Round of 16 and scored an average finish of 10th. The eight-time Cup Series winner has one victory this season, which came in the Chicago Street Race in July.

Bowman's teammates, meanwhile, all advanced to the next round of the playoffs. Kyle Larson will start round three from the points lead while William Byron starts from fourth and Chase Elliott from seventh.