Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon said Tuesday that the organization accepted the disqualification penalty handed to its No. 48 Chevrolet team last weekend, explaining that the team did not file an appeal in part because no exonerating evidence was found in post-race inspection.

Gordon’s remarks came during Tuesday’s “Morning Drive” segment on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, after Kyle Larson’s clinching victory for Hendrick Motorsports in Sunday’s Charlotte Motor Speedway road course event. Larson reached the Round of 8 in the Cup Series Playoffs, with teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott joining him after Sunday’s elimination race. Fellow Hendrick driver Alex Bowman was also in position to advance in the postseason to make it a clean sweep for all four teams, but his No. 48 Chevy did not meet the minimum weight requirement in post-race inspection, resulting in a disqualification penalty.

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Bowman was relegated to a last-place finish in the 38-car field, dropping him from the playoff field and opening the door for Team Penske’s Joey Logano to fill the eighth and final spot in the next round. Hendrick Motorsports faced a 5 p.m. ET deadline Monday to appeal the penalty but chose not to, apologizing to the team’s fans and partners and saying in a statement: “We simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement. Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable.”

Gordon said the organization considered multiple factors in reaching that decision, including any possible damage from the No. 48 car’s significant curb hop on the frontstretch chicane early in the race.

“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 told SiriusXM. “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.

“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. 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.”

Gordon said he has met with Hendrick Motorsports competition executives Jeff Andrews and Chad Knaus, along with the teams’ car chiefs and crew chiefs, adding that “we’re going to assess and probably adjust our procedures and our processes” to ensure that inspection tolerances are met in the races ahead.

“Certainly looking back at this, it doesn’t seem like pushing it as far as we did or cutting it as close as we did there was worth it,” Gordon said. “But at the same time, I love that our race teams pay attention to all the details, and it’s in a thousand different areas on the car. So we’ll certainly take a look at that, and the most important thing is making sure that all four of our cars moving forward are going to be able to meet those tolerances.”

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Bowman’s championship eligibility expired after the Charlotte Roval, with his playoff hopes dashed by a 20-point margin after Sunday evening’s penalty. But Gordon lauded what’s been a bounceback season for Bowman, who snapped an 80-race skid with his summertime victory in the Chicago Street Race and who returned to the playoffs after missing the field in 2023.

“There’s a multitude of factors that make this tough to swallow, but one of the keys is the performance of the 48 team and what Alex has done,” Gordon said. “That team’s had a lot of pressure on them. They’ve been building this team up, getting more depth, getting comfortable with one another. Alex being healthy this year, they go win at Chicago, get themselves in the playoffs, and performed at a high level through the playoffs. So you hate to take that momentum and that opportunity away, and I know they’re disappointed as well, and I also know that they’ve got points to gain and get as high up in the points as they can once you see what plays out in this next round. 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.”

The rest of the Hendrick Motorsports group has aspirations for finishing strong and advancing to the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 10. Elliott has built on his consistency, Byron has rekindled some of his early season magic in recent weeks, and Larson added another in a series of dominating outings Sunday with his sixth win of the season.

Hendrick Motorsports has placed two cars among the final four championship contenders in two of the last three years at Phoenix, and Gordon said the organization was inching toward a well-timed peak in performance.

“That’s super-impressive, and that’s what you want,” Gordon said. “You want to get red-hot at this time of the year, and I think all of our teams, I can just tell they’ve got that twinkle in their eye, they’ve got an amazing opportunity to go battle for a championship, and this next round aligns really well for all three of the teams that we still have in the playoffs. Any one of them can not only … I’m hoping we get all three of them to Phoenix, but any one of them can win the championship this year.”