Hendrick Motorsports has withdrawn the appeal of the L1 penalty

Chase Elliott was in violation of rule 20.14.2 following the ISM Raceway inspection

Following ISM Raceway, Chase Elliott was with with an L1-penalty. The rear suspension of the #9 Hendrick Motorsports machine was in violation of the NASCAR rulebook.

20.14.2: Rear suspension and trailing arm angles/pinion angle shims must be flat.

This is a rule that was regularly broken in 2017. Denny Hamlin is one example, he failed to pass the same section of the rulebook following his win at Darlington Raceway.

NASCAR stated that the failure to create a flush mount results in added sideforce on the machine. It must be flush at all contact points.

Related: Denny Hamlin receives an encumbered win following Darlington inspection

Related: Erik Jones has been found in violation of rear suspension rules

Chase Elliott finished 3rd at ISM Raceway. The finish isn’t ‘encumbered’ as NASCAR no longer uses that term.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson was hit with a $50,000 fine following the ISM Raceway inspection. Hendrick Motorsports also lost 25 owner points while Chase Elliott relinquished 25 driver points. In addition, Car Chief Josh Kirk was suspended for two races.

Initially, Hendrick Motorsports elected to appeal the L1 penalty. Under the appeal process, Car Chief Josh Kirk was allowed at the race track last weekend at Auto Club Speedway.

However, Hendrick Motorsports has now withdrawn their appeal of the penalty to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel. As a result, the two car chief suspension will official begin this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

Chase Elliott has 5 starts at Martinsville Speedway. He has a best finish of 3rd which came in April 2017. That was his first top 10 at the track. In the October playoff race he was battling Hamlin for the lead in the closing laps when a bump and run resulted in impact with the wall.

More

Related: ISM Raceway Penalty Report

Related: Denny Hamlin comments on racing Chase Elliott in 2018

Related: Denny Hamlin vs Chase Elliott at Martinsville (VIDEO)

Related: NASCAR is looking at things that could potentially remove the NASCAR R&D Center inspection

Links

Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | ISM Raceway | NASCAR

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