NASCAR has suspended Chase Elliott for 1-race for intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway
On Monday, Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted the NASCAR Cup Series. The famed Coca-Cola 600 brought fireworks and drama to the show.
On a mid-race restart, Hamlin rubbed doors with Chase Elliott. Just a few laps later, Hamlin lost the nose in turn four and ran up the track.
Hear from NASCAR below.
As Hamlin ran wide, he crowded Elliott and shoved him in the wall. Elliott bounced off the outside wall and gathered his machine.
Chase Elliott crashes Denny Hamlin in retaliation at Charlotte (Video)
Elliott abruptly turned hard left, hooking Hamlin in the right rear. Both cars slammed the outside wall and were out of the race.
Denny Hamlin called for Elliott’s suspension
Immediately, Hamlin called for Chase Elliott to be suspended. He referenced Bubba Wallace’s suspension last season when Wallace intentionally hooked Larson in the right rear.
“It’s a tantrum and he shouldn’t be racing next week,” Hamlin told Fox Sports.
Read the full comment from Denny Hamlin on the incident with Elliott
Chase Elliott claimed it wasn’t intentional
Elliott on the other hand, pleaded innocence. With an Oscar like performance, he claimed the car was broken after contact with the wall, causing him to crash into Hamlin.
“Once you tear the right sides off these things, it’s kinda over. I hate it,” Elliott said.
Read the full comment from Chase Elliott after the incident
NASCAR didn’t buy it. They elected to suspended Chase Elliott for this weekend’s event at WWT Raceway.
Elliott suspended by NASCAR for wrecking Hamlin
NASCAR details the penalty to Chase Elliott
“My call today is more related to the incident between Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott around lap 185,” Elton Sawyer opened via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“Last night and early this morning, we continued to gather data. We arrived at a 1-race suspension for Chase.”
“We take this very seriously in the fact that the incident that happened off turn four … Again, after looking at all the available resources, in-car camera, data, SMT which gives us steering, throttle, braking.”
“It was an intentional act by Chase in our opinion and or view after reviewing all the available resources.”
“Just watching the optics of it. Immediately, from the tower, it’s like wow, it looked like a hard left hand turn into the right-rear quarter of the No. 11. Obviously, turned the No. 11 into the front straight-away wall, head on.”
“Throughout the day, you start looking at the data. There was some conversation about maybe a broken toe-link on the right-rear. Nothing gave us the indication that on that particular impact with the wall, that anything was broke, by looking at the steering. Hand position on the steering wheel.”
“The way the steering wheel was turned hard to the left. It just supported what the optics were.”
“That’s why we landed on the penalty that we did.”
Chase Elliott crashes Denny Hamlin in retaliation at Charlotte (Video)
Denny Hamlin calls for Chase Elliott to be suspended by NASCAR
Links
Chase Elliott | Denny Hamlin | Charlotte Motor Speedway | NASCAR
