Alex Bowman did not have a good Sunday night after leaving the Charlotte Roval and it wasn’t just because he was kicked out of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Bowman was sitting by his pool when he heard from crew chief Blake Harris that there might be an issue with the No. 48 Chevrolet in post-race inspection. A little while later, it became official that the car failed for being too light, and Bowman was disqualified from the race, which eliminated him from the postseason.
“I proceeded to throw my phone in the pool, and my phone proceeded to call 911 and tell them I was in a car crash,” Bowman said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Round of 8 begins. “So my Sunday night wasn’t very good. But it couldn’t happen to anybody else that way, right?”
Bowman clarified he didn’t throw his phone in anger but more tossed it as he walked back inside. It was a proactive move to distance himself from the device and anyone trying to reach him.
“It hit the bottom of the pool and I walked away and 20 minutes later, I’m like, ‘OK, I should probably go get my phone out of the pool,’” Bowman said. “I just knew my phone was about to start blowing up, and I really didn’t want to see any of it at that point, right? Luckily, your phone doesn’t have service from the bottom of the pool, so nothing came of it.
“But I guess they have a new thing where they report that you’ve been in a car crash if the phone feels something. So that happened. It’s a true story.”
The phone still works.
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NASCAR gives teams a tolerance to make weight, which is about 17 pounds. Neither NASCAR nor Hendrick Motorsports detailed how far off the tolerance Bowman’s car was or why it failed inspection. Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman, said earlier this week the team cut it too close and expressed disappointment and embarrassment.
Bowman didn’t have any more details to share, either, although he did say the weight issue wasn’t something he felt behind the wheel during the race, and that the car became damaged after launching over the curbing in the frontstretch chicane.
The unfortunate turn of events brought a range of emotions, but if the last few years have taught Bowman anything, it’s dealing with the highs and lows of racing. He believes most of the bad things that have happened to him have ended up working out for the better. In this case, although it’s going to sting for a while, he’s focused on moving on and trying to find more success before the season ends.
“We win and lose as a team,” Bowman said. “We’ve worked really hard and done a lot of things right and unfortunately, in that situation, we did something wrong and there’s really no way around that. Really all we can do is continue to run well the rest of the year and continue to do what we’ve been doing. I think this is a good place for us to go try to win, and hopefully we’ll have a shot at it.”
Of course, the story doesn’t end there. The morning after his disqualification, Bowman walked into his garage and found a crack in one of his car windows. He also had to get his roof repaired during the week because it was leaking.
“It’s been a week, man,” he said.