Hendrick Motorsports chief explains shock team change ahead of crucial NASCAR playoff race

Hendrick Motorsports chief Chad Knaus has explained the drastic action taken by the team this week ahead of Saturday night's crucial playoff race at Bristol.

Four NASCAR Cup Series drivers will be eliminated from the postseason when the black and white checkered flag drops at Bristol Motor Speedway, with Alex Bowman and the No. 48 team currently one of the drivers under threat.

Bowman sits 35 points below the Round of 12 cutoff line and in 15th position in the standings, meaning he is facing a huge task to advance.

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Hendrick Motorsports' drastic Alex Bowman team change

Despite the above, the team are not giving up yet, with Hendrick Motorsports taking the drastic decision to swap out four of Bowman's pit crew for that of the No. 77 team at Spire Motorsports for this weekend's action.

We occasionally see some personnel changes weekend to weekend, but to see so many of a driver's team shifted, especially ahead of such a pivotal race, is out of the ordinary.

However, Knaus, who is the vice president of competition at Hendrick Motorsports, has justified the decision, explaining that they needed to freshen things up in the hope it will yield a result on Saturday night.

“When we get in these situations and we're not getting the results that we need, we have to make something happen,” Knaus said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We all know that this is a momentum-based sport.

“If you go out there and you're feeling confident you're doing your job, you can roll in and carry a little something into the next week, even if maybe the performance isn't always there.

“And it also goes the other way if you go in doubting your abilities, and if you go in doubting yourselves a little bit, you play a little bit more reserved, and then ultimately maybe you don't make the right decisions or you don't perform and have the fastest pit stops or the best pit calls or whatever the situation may be."

Ultimately, Knaus concluded: "We just decided we needed to go into Bristol with a little bit of fresh, so we made the call."

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Bowman not heavily involved in decision

It is undoubtedly a ruthless move from Hendrick Motorsports in seeking the best result for Bowman, but it appears the driver himself had limited say on what went down.

“I wasn’t super involved in it, had some conversations, but not super deeply involved in it,” Bowman said Friday at Bristol.

“Those guys have been super fast at points throughout this year and they’re all really great athletes and do a good job. We’ve just had a bad two weeks at a time that we can’t have a bad two weeks.”

Bowman later added: “I’m definitely friends with all those guys and appreciative for all their hard work,”

“It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they had an amazing day on pit road on the 77 car and looked really good. I think for us, we needed a change, and just trying to have the best shot we can at winning this weekend.”

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