"We gave them an opportunity" - Alex Bowman breaks silence on Joey Logano's championship after playoff DQ
Alex Bowman has opened up on Joey Logano winning his third NASCAR Cup Series championship after benefiting from the Hendrick Motorsports driver's disqualification in the Charlotte ROVAL playoff race. The 31-year-old Bowman had originally made it to the Round of 8 but fell out of contention after failing a post-race inspection.
In his seventh full-time season with the Rick Hendrick outfit, Bowman had an impressive run and secured his playoffs spot by taking the checkered flag at the Chicago street race. Although he fell out of contention after the Round of 12, the Arizona native accumulated eight top-fives and 17 top-tens.
Speaking to Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass, the 8-time Cup Series race winner reflected on missing out on a possible championship run.
"Just something that obviously I hate it for our team and our team works really hard and it’s just something we made a mistake on. At the end of the day, it wasn’t something that I did. So, I think that would have made it weird, but just a bummer situation all around. Wanted a Hendrick car to win a championship and missed out on that, which sucked," Alex Bowman said.
Furthermore, the #48 Chevy driver also spoke about not having any conversation with Team Penske driver Logano and gave him a thumbs up for making the most of the opportunity.
"I don’t think Joey’s ever texted me. I don’t think Joey has my phone number, so yeah congrats to him for taking advantage of the situation. He did what he needed to do. That team — honestly, we gave them an opportunity and they capitalized on it. Congrats to them. They did a great job," Alex Bowman added.
That being said, this wasn't the case with #22 Ford driver Logano when some in the NASCAR community deemed him to be "lucky" upon making it to the final round of the 2024 playoffs.
"We had the spot the whole time": Joey Logano reflected on being awarded Round of 8 spot after Alex Bowman's DQ at Charlotte
Ahead of his Championship 4 race, Joey Logano shared his thoughts on him being labeled lucky because of Alex Bowman's disqualification at the Charlotte ROVAL. The 34-year-old believed everyone has the same opportunity, irrespective of how they make it to the next round.
"We were next in line for a reason, and we had to race against a car that wasn’t legal. We had the spot the whole time," he said via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Logano added:
"Nobody makes it to the Championship 4 not in a deserving way […] Everyone has the same opportunity when we roll in February in Daytona. Everybody has the same opportunity to get to the Championship 4, no matter how you get there."
After advancing, Logano showed his prowess and booked an early spot in the Championship 4 race by securing a win in the first race of the Round of 8. Ultimately, he won the Phoenix race and the 2024 Cup Series title.