CUP: Devastating disqualification sends Bowman tumbling out of “Round of 8”
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Hendrick Motorsports, @TeamHendrick
Alex Bowman picked up the 9th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course when his #48 Ally Chevrolet finished 18th after completing all 109 laps, but was disqualified for failing post-race weights.
The finish, which came in Bowman’s 321st series start, was his second of the season and first since June 23, 2024 at New Hampshire, 14 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 26th for the #48, the 31st from disqualification, and the 862nd for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 36th for the #48, the 58th by disqualification, and the 1,964th for Chevrolet.
Corey LaJoie picked up the 12th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course when his #51 Schluter Systems Ford lost the engine after he completed 3 of 109 laps.
The finish, which came in LaJoie’s 268th series start, was his second of the season and first since March 31, 2024 at Richmond, 25 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it as the 33rd for the #51, the 723rd from a blown engine, and the 754th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 47th for the #51, the 1,054th for Ford, and the 1,148th from engine issues.
Just two weeks after he was last featured here, Bowman earned an impressive win at the Chicago Street Course, where he not only bested “road ringer” Joey Hand, but also rebounded from a last-place finish in the 2023 inaugural. He’d go on to finish 3rd the next week at Pocono, then closed out the “Round of 16” with a pole and a 9th-place finish at Bristol, where he led all but four of the laps teammate Kyle Larson didn’t. He arrived at the Charlotte “Roval” 6th in the Playoff standings with a 26-point gap over the cutoff line. Of the 38 entrants, he ranked 15th and 17th in the two practices, then qualified 9th in Round 1B with a lap of 83.370 seconds (98.453mph), securing him 17th on the grid for Sunday.
Claiming the 38th and final starting spot was Josh Bilicki, whose spotter congratulated him for making his 100th Cup Series start. This week, Bilicki rejoined Motorsports Business Management in the #66 Ford, this week sponsored by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol as part of a donation drive for victims of Hurricane Helene. A late-arriving sponsor for Bilicki’s hood was credit card and financial company Coign, which on Saturday was the primary sponsor for Alex Labbe at DGM Racing, finishing 14th. No drivers incurred pre-race penalties, so Bilicki took the green flag in the last spot, 6.908 seconds back of the lead and just over three-tenths behind 37th-place Erik Jones in the #43 Family Dollar Toyota (6.577 seconds back of the lead).
By the end of Lap 1, Bilicki was still in last, now 11.401 seconds back of the lead, and still 0.473 behind Jones, who was racing alongside Josh Berry’s #4 Bed Bath & Beyond Ford. Jones cleared Berry by Lap 3, when Bilicki slipped to 0.639 behind him and 15.135 back of the lead. Jones climbed to 34th, but on Lap 4 incurred a stop-and-go penalty for cutting the chicane on the frontstretch. That same time by, when Bilicki was now 1.008 behind Berry and 18.652 back of the lead, Bilicki was told to watch for smoke and debris on the backstretch. Coming out of Turn 7, Corey LaJoie’s #51 Schluter Systems Ford dropped off the pace after trailing smoke during the early laps. The Rick Ware Racing crew called him to pit road, where he took last from Bilicki on Lap 5, just as Bilicki closed to within 0.375 of the penalized Jones in a battle for 36th. By Lap 6, LaJoie’s car was pushed behind the wall, and someone on the team radio said, “Spotter, we’re done for the day.” On Lap 8, LaJoie’s team sent a message to their VIPs sitting atop the pit box in the infield. They informed them LaJoie had lost the engine, “so it’s going to be a short day for us.” However, they invited the VIPs to watch as much of the race as they liked, and would only take down the pit box after they left. On Lap 12, NASCAR declared LaJoie the first driver out of the race, and after lowering the hood in the team’s garage stall, the car’s on-board camera was shut off on Lap 14.
LaJoie's car pushed into the garage early on Sunday. (SCREENSHOT: NASCAR Drive)
Meanwhile, Bowman had an eventful day on the track. In the opening five laps, he ran over the “turtles” at the exit to the frontstretch chicane, ramping his car onto two wheels before he skated into the outside wall. He managed to reach the end of Stage 1 without incident, then led five laps as he beat A.J. Allmendinger to win Stage 2. Still short of locking himself into the “Round of 8,” Bowman again struggled through the final stage, taking the checkered flag in 18th spot. The 29 points he earned were still enough to keep him in the “Round of 8,” just nine points ahead of 9th-place Joey Logano, who missed the cut despite a solid 8th-place finish. This would lock in all four of Hendrick Motorsports’ entries in their 40th anniversary season, the fourth team sweep of the “Round of 8” since 2016, and the first for Hendrick.
But that changed in post-race inspection, where Bowman’s car failed to pass NASCAR’s minimum weight specs by more than approximately 17 pounds, per NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran. This resulted in, to say the least, a costly disqualification. Now ranked 38th with a 28-point loss, he slipped to 9th in the standings, 20 points behind Logano, who was thus lifted back into the coveted 8th spot. As of this writing, Hendrick Motorsports is considering an appeal.
Thus, LaJoie avoided his 12th career last-place finish, spread across four different teams – excluding only his time with Go FAS Racing in he #32 Ford. LaJoie instead ranked 37th behind Playoff contender Chase Briscoe, whose #14 Ford Performance Racing School Ford cut a left-rear tire, then suffered serious steering issues that sent him behind the wall and out of the championship hunt. Taking 35th was Ty Gibbs, whose #54 Interstate Batteries Toyota reportedly had transmission issues when he went behind the wall, then was listed out with engine trouble. He wound up just one and two laps behind the Legacy Motor Club duo of 34th-place John Hunter Nemechek and 33rd-place Erik Jones, who were both knocked out in a collision with Ross Chastain exiting the frontstretch chicane. Bowman’s disqualification bumped Jones out of the Bottom Five and Chastain out of the Bottom Ten.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Curiously, it was also at Charlotte – this time on the oval – that the #48 was most recently classified last by disqualification. That was on May 24, 2020, when 2nd-place finishing Jimmie Johnson failed post-race OSS following the Coca-Cola 600. A Cup driver had never finished last by disqualification on the Charlotte “Roval.” Bowman is also the first Cup last-place finisher at the Charlotte “Roval” to lead at least one lap of that same race.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #48-Alex Bowman / 109 laps / disqualified (had led 5 laps, won stage 2)
38) #51-Corey LaJoie / 3 laps / engine
37) #14-Chase Briscoe / 41 laps / crash
36) #54-Ty Gibbs / 54 laps / engine
35) #42-John Hunter Nemechek / 55 laps / crash
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Stewart-Haas Racing (5)
2nd) Penske Racing (4)
3rd) Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Spire Motorsports (3)
4th) Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing, Trackhouse Racing (2)
5th) Front Row Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing (1)
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (16)
2nd) Chevrolet (11)
3rd) Toyota (4)
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
