“That’s the hardest I’ve ever hit anything”: Alex Bowman opens up after getting disqualified from the 2024 championship fight 

Alex Bowman got disqualified from Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His No. 48 Chevrolet crossed the checkered lighter than the permitted weight cap and thus, failed to make the post-race inspection.

It could have resulted from Alex Bowman taking a hit earlier in the race when the hood of his car went airborne. Several people in the community opined that Bowman might have lost ballast following the impact.

Bowman, however, took full responsibility for the outcome. During an interview with Toby Christie, the Arizona native said:

"I didn't crash. That's the hardest I've ever hit anything in my life. Just a hard thing...these things have big roadblocks underneath them."

"Just how I was following, I think the 1 (Ross Chastain), I just couldn't see. I thought I was okay. Clearly, I was too far on the left. My mistake caused that for sure," he added.

Despite sweeping Stage 2 and collecting enough points to qualify for the Round of 8 opener on 20 October, Bowman dropped from 6th to 9th in the Cup Series point standings. He lost 28 points due to the violation.

Furthermore, Joey Logano, who was initially chucked out of the playoff contention, got to keep the eighth and final spot for the Round of 8. Hendrick Motorsports will decide on Monday whether to appeal to NASCAR about the DQ.

NASCAR's Managing Director explains Alex Bowman's disqualification

Alex Bowman's disqualification was indeed a huge hit to an otherwise great day for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Larson got the Chevy team their 11th race win this year and took their total win count to 312. HMS drivers William Byron and Chase Elliott, too, made the Round of 8.

During a post-race interview, NASCAR's Cup Series managing director Brad Morgan explained Bowman's situation, via Frontstretch:

"As we were running them through, the 48 had an issue; did not meet minimum weight," Morgan said. "So we put the car to the side and continued on. We gave them the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the wire system and add water. We gave them every opportunity to make minimum weight. We ran them back through and unfortunately they were light again."

NASCAR uses an Optical Scanning Station (OSS) to determine metrics like these. The minimum weight a car should hold post-race is 3,300 lbs. The teams are allowed a 5 percent weight break due to the shortage of fuel and other fluids.

"They are allowed a 5 percent weight break for usage of fluids and so on," Morgan further stated. "That’s about 17 lbs. We backed the car off the scales, ran it back on, and unfortunately it was the same weight."

A playoff driver or not, Alex Bowman will start his engine next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has a win (2022) at the 1.5-mile tri-oval intermediate speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada.