NASCAR
Chase Elliott Given Pocono Cup Win After Hamlin, Busch Fail Inspection
LONG PONG, Pa. – Breaking news from Pocono Raceway, as the top two finishers from Sunday’s Cup race failed inspection. Both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch have been disqualified from the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400. This gives the win to initial third-place finisher Chase Elliott. Instead of Hamlin joining Elliott as a three-time winner this year, the 9 now stands alone as the only four-time winner.
This mammoth penalty on the Joe Gibbs Racing cars resulted from an error on their front noses. Apparently a material was somewhere improper in the front fascia area on both Toyotas.
For Chase Elliott, this now marks five-straight top-two finishes. This span includes three wins on tracks where the 9 had not won before. Instead of Hamlin now being the all-time winningest driver at Pocono, Elliott picks up his first Tricky Triangle win. Elliott’s apparent stranglehold on the regular season championship will only increase now with the points reshuffling. Hamlin and Busch will now be ruled as finishing 35th and 36th.
In a bizarre race ruling to say the least, Elliott did not lead a single lap in this win. This mirrors a similar punishment from 2019 given to Ross Chastain in the Iowa Truck race. After failing inspection that day, the win went to Brett Moffitt, who also never led.
New Pocono top 10 finishers are: Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon.
Both illegal cars are going back to the NASCAR R&D Center at the time of this writing. Any appeals or additional penalties are still to be determined.
This story will be updated as more information is provided.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images for NASCAR
