End of the Road: Championship Bids End for Bowman, Cindric, Suarez, Briscoe at ROVAL

While eight drivers and teams will continue on to the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as they continue to chase the aspiration of a NASCAR Cup Series championship, Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 Playoff elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL signaled the end of the road for four championship hopefuls.

Alex Bowman, following a disqualification in post-race inspection, joined Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, and Chase Briscoe on the outside looking in of the Playoffs. Let's break down how the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series seasons went for the four drivers and teams that were eliminated on Sunday, and what the future holds for all four of them.

Alex Bowman

What a heartbreaking end to Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team's 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The driver of the No. 48 car scored the most points in the Round of 16, which easily advanced him to the Round of 12, and after an 18th-place finish in Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400, it appeared that Bowman was set to advance to the Round of 8. However, in post-race inspection, Bowman's car was just too light on the scales, which led to the driver being disqualified.

While the DQ marked the end of the road for Bowman's Playoff hopes (pending a potential appeal), what Bowman achieved in 2024 following a disappointing 2023 campaign, and constant swirling rumors about his future this season, was nothing short of miraculous.

With four races remaining in the season, Bowman is just one top-five, and one top-10 shy of tying his career bests in each statistical category, and a win in the Street Race at Chicago marked Bowman's first win since Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the third race of the 2022 season. Prior to post-race inspection at the ROVAL, Blake Harris, Bowman's crew chief, said that he and Bowman have had Las Vegas, the site of this weekend's race, circled as a place where they felt they could do some damage. Keep an eye on Bowman as he attempts to avenge his DQ and play Playoff spoiler this weekend.

Bowman is set to return to Hendrick Motorsports in 2025, despite rumors heading into the Playoffs suggesting that wouldn't be the case. Rick Hendrick has emphatically denied the rumors of HMS replacing Bowman as the driver of the No. 48, and during a media event announcing Kyle Larson's 2025 Indianapolis 500 bid, Hendrick declared that Bowman is the driver of the No. 48 car for the 2025 season.

Austin Cindric

The 2024 season certainly didn't start off pretty for Cindric and the No. 2 Team Penske group, but as the season rolled on, the driver and his team really started to hit their stride and began to perform much more consistently down the stretch.

Heading into Gateway, where Cindric picked up an unexpected victory when his teammate Ryan Blaney ran out of fuel ahead of him coming to the white flag, Cindric had just one top-10 finish, and two top-15s. He looked very much like an afterthought for the Playoffs, and the rumor mill began mentioning Cindric and his future due to the struggles.

However, after the win, Cindric and crew chief Brian Wilson found something, and over their last 18 starts, Cindric and Wilson recorded five top-10 finishes and nine top-15s. It was a massive turnaround from the opening 14 races of the year.

Going forward, Cindric and the No. 2 Team Penske team are at a fork in the road. Cindric knows if they want to have a longer Playoff run in 2025, they must fire out of the gates stronger to start the campaign.

"That is what this format is. It is difficult. I think for us, having a better regular season, having a bit better of a buffer would definitely help," Cindric said after Sunday's race. "I am proud of everyone. I feel like we are getting into a rhythm here. I am proud of the team and looking forward to trying to spoil some races and support our teammates the rest of the way.”

The run the team had in the Playoffs, where they advanced to the Round of 12, and were in the conversation to move to the Round of 8 until a crash at Talladega made their hopes slim heading into the ROVAL, should boost their confidence. Either way, Cindric and the No. 2 took a much-needed step forward in 2024 on the heels of a 2023 season, which Cindric openly admitted was the worst of his professional racing career.

Daniel Suarez

The 2024 season started with many rumoring that with so many drivers in the Trackhouse Racing developmental pipeline (Zane Smith, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Connor Zilisch), Suarez was bound to be the odd man out when his contract was set to expire at the end of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Suarez quickly quieted those rumors by snagging a win in a photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second race of the season, and he wound up being the lone Trackhouse Racing car in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as Ross Chastain failed to advance down the stretch.

That is the good for Suarez, the bad is that the No. 99 team was wildly inconsistent throughout the 2024 campaign, and even in the Playoffs they struggled to be consistently in the mix near the front of the field. Suarez's Playoff run ended with three finishes of 26th-or-worse over his final four races of the season.

Suarez was never really a factor at the Charlotte ROVAL as he experienced brake issues throughout and came home a disappointing 30th to end his Playoffs bid. The way his Playoff run came to an end was more deflating to Suarez than the fact that he didn't advance to the Round of 8.

"It’s just painful. It’s painful to be out the of the playoffs this way," Suarez said after the race. "That’s the part that’s more painful than anything. If we would have finished fifth and I was out of the playoffs, I would be happy. We worked really hard, but for some reason it didn’t show today.”

Overall, it was a down year for Trackhouse Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, and as the team heads toward expansion to three full-time cars in 2025, Suarez, and Chastain will look to gain momentum.

Chase Briscoe

Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team exited the Playoffs Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL and were the last team in the 12-driver Playoff standings, but honestly, it feels like they should have nothing to hang their heads about.

The team had been battling with the cloud of rumors of the demise of the organization through the first three months of the season, and in May, SHR finally confirmed the news that the team would indeed shut down at the season's end.

It would have been very easy for everyone to throw up their hands, and give up, but they all dug deep, and made it to the Playoffs on the back of a win in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington, and despite being behind the eight ball several times in the Round of 16, Briscoe was able to advance to the Round of 12.

After a trying week, personally, where his wife Marissa spent time in the ER following the birth of their twins, Briscoe did the best he could to pull through in the clutch for his race team. They just didn't have the car, and ultimately a cut tire and steering issues ended his day early.

“It is tough to have all the momentum that we had and to have it come to an end like it did is unfortunate," Briscoe explained. "I wish we could have kept going for it. I am sure all the guys that get eliminated wish they could keep going for it, right? We knew, I think as a team even, going into it that if we could get through this round we could get to the final four but we weren’t able to get through this round. It is unfortunate."

For Stewart-Haas Racing this may be the end of the road, but things are just starting for Briscoe, who will move to Joe Gibbs Racing as the successor to Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota. While you would expect that to be tough shoes to fill for Briscoe, it's worth noting that Briscoe actually pushed further into the Playoffs this season than the future NASCAR Hall of Famer. Briscoe very well could surprise next season with JGR, but he'll look to close out his tenure with SHR, a team co-owned by his childhood hero Tony Stewart, as strong as he can.

"We still have a lot to race for," Briscoe said. "We can still go win four more races and that is what we will try to do. It is four really good tracks for us so I feel really good about it. I wish we were racing for a championship still. It is just one of those days. Honestly, kind of one of those weeks with everything that has happened. I am ready for Monday.

Photo Credit: Tyson Gifford, Racing America On SI