With four races left, the NASCAR Cup Series continues its nationwide trek back and forth across four time zones, anxious to award a championship a month from now.
The miles are adding up and time is quickly running out.
This Sunday the series makes its second stop at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the South Point 400 representing the first of three races in the Round of 8.
Last week’s finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval appeared to have all four Hendrick Motorsports teams advancing after Kyle Larson’s elimination-race win — his series-best sixth triumph, twice as many as anyone else.
However, when post-race inspections concluded a few hours after Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet again sped across the finish line as the top dog at the sport’s home track, his teammate Alex Bowman was disqualified due to his No. 48 Camaro being too light.
Moved to last place in the 38-car field, Bowman was bounced outside the top eight, while Team Penske’s Joey Logano was bumped up to the eighth spot and will continue his quest for a third Cup title.
Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion and winner of 93 races over 25 years of Cup racing, said the organization was fully at fault for what befell Bowman and no appeal was necessary.
“Pretty embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what was looking like a historical day and one of the most exciting days that we’ve had at the race track, being a home race and everything and celebrating in Victory Lane and all four, and that all got wiped away,” Gordon said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“So we looked at all the facts, and we didn’t feel like there was really anything that we felt comfortable appealing, and we’re going to move on.”
Strange occurrences transpire when a crown is at stake.
This appears to be just a mistake by Hendrick Motorsports because Bowman was in on points after Talladega, sitting fourth at plus-26 and likely advancing to the next round a week later.
However, 11 years ago, Hendrick’s star Gordon was the beneficiary of shenanigans that eventually led to the demise of Michael Waltrip Racing.
At the Richmond cutoff race in the final 10 laps to set the field for 2013’s 12-car Chase for the Sprint Cup, MWR’s Clint Bowyer, locked into the playoffs, appeared to spin intentionally.
That action brought out a caution and allowed MWR teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers to move up in the points and join the dozen title pursuers.
The finish knocked out Gordon and Ryan Newman, but NASCAR soon deemed Bowyer’s looping of his Toyota intentional. It then put Gordon and Newman into the title chase, and Logano also advanced because of the late caution in what became known as “Spingate.”
Now, Logano is back in the hunt over a decade later.
And that’s bad news for the other seven championship chasers.
While Larson has won three of the past seven races at Vegas, Logano has claimed one of the other four and is a three-time victor in the desert.
The No. 22 Team Penske driver also has two championships and has a stout resume on the remaining speedways.
With another Cup champion reinserted into the Round of 8 mix, it’s clear the stakes in Vegas are for high-rollers only.
–Field Level Media
