Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman looked set to progress into the next round, however when a post-race inspection found that his car was underweight his championship hopes were dashed.
The 31-year-old has since been disqualified, placing him out of contention for the 2024 title, with Joey Logano making it into the final eight.
Can Hendrick Motorsports win an appeal?
Hendrick Motorsports revealed in a statement via social media, that they were considering whether to launch an appeal, with the team yet to announce their decision.
However, Hamlin does not believe that an appeal will be successful, delivering a damning verdict on his Actions Detrimental podcast.
“So, he’s [Bowman] out. For now,” Hamlin said.
“His car was too light in postrace tech, and now he’s going to be out. And this was such a key moment because I didn’t realize until I listened to Joey’s interview when he was like, ‘Well, I guess we’re just going to confuse everyone because we’re still in on the owners but we’re out on the drivers.’
“I was like, ‘Oh s**t am I out then? Is my car out?’ I was like, ‘No the 45 is out. No! Dang it!’ Out by one point and the reason is, this is just so complicated.”
“I can tell you, has Hendrick ever lost an appeal? Just every one of their penalties has been tweaked.”
“I’m thinking about this, how are they going to get out of this?”
“They can’t touch the car, NASCAR is going to impound the car. Surely they’re dying to just get within a few feet of that car to find a way to get some weight in that thing.