Jeff Gordon comments on Alex Bowman's Roval DQ

After Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team were disqualified following Sunday's Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, Bowman was effectively eliminated from playoff contention due to failing to meet the minimum weight requirement in post-race inspection.

Surprisingly, the team elected not to appeal the DQ saying , "We simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement. Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable."

On Tuesday, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon appeared on the "Morning Drive" segment on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to address the penalty.

"You just look at this race in general and the amount of contact, we wanted to really inspect the car fully to see was there enough damage or was there something that got dislodged from the car," Gordon said . "So NASCAR was great through the whole process. You can't really inspect much of it at the race track, so we weren't really sure, but they took it over to the tech center, looked at it yesterday and thoroughly examined it and didn't find anything.

"So quite honestly, it's just one of those things where NASCAR has minimum pre-race, minimum post-race weights, and our teams in order to just make the best performing race cars every weekend for our drivers, we know that we've got to stay as close to those minimums as possible, and in this case, the 48 car, they just cut it too close and missed it, and so that's on us."

Gordon also mentioned that he was " pretty embarrassed " by the whole situation. He said he and several members of the Hendrick Motorsports organization met to determine what can be done to ensure their teams pass inspection going forward.

In a race dominated by Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson, Bowman's other teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott both advanced to the Round of 8 on points. Bowman was set to join them after winning Stage 2 and accumulating enough points to advance out of the round until the post-race penalty.

Ultimately, Bowman was relegated to a last-place finish in the race and missed advancing to the Round of 8 by 20 points, paving the way for two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano to advance instead. After snapping an 80-race winless streak at the Chicago Street Course earlier in the season and earning more points than any other playoff driver, the penalty brings Bowman's consistent playoff run to an unfortunate end.

Gordon hopes the success the No. 48 team found in the playoffs is not lost on them despite the penalty, saying in part , "Those guys can go gain a lot of points and get high up and keep the momentum going and win races and take that into next season and hopefully get the season started off right."

That next opportunity comes this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as the Round of 8 gets underway at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, and the NBC Sports App.