Insiders in NASCAR respond to Chase Elliott’s reaction after NASCAR penalized him.
During the first stage of the Brickyard 400 on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott was fined by NASCAR for breaking the blend line rule as he was leaving pit road.
Elliott ended up on the wrong end of a memo that NASCAR sent to teams and drivers the night before the race to clear up any confusion. Elliott lost his temper and yelled over his radio.
Regarding the penalty on “The Teardown,” Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic both felt that Elliott’s indignation was unjustified because he had obviously broken a rule that the other players on the field didn’t seem to be confused by. Throughout the race, the only other driver to receive a penalty for crossing the mix line was
Chase Elliott gets in trouble for crossing the blend line.
The vast majority of the field appeared to be aware of that regulation, so Bianchi questioned why Chase was acting so outraged. “I understand why there’s some confusion,” Bianchi remarked. Only Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott received penalties. They both sort of said the same thing, but their interpretations were different. However, considering how unclear this was, one would assume that more drivers would have broken the law.
Elliott committed some fairly heinous crimes. It’s clear that there ought to have been a penalty for this. What struck me as remarkable was Chase’s response. It was a complete breakdown, something you seldom see in him. Maybe because it’s so difficult to pass, or maybe because it’s the Brickyard.”I was amazed at how many distinct factors there are in it. The Larson incident didn’t disturb me at all; I felt it was close enough to be forgiven. In the sense that it was an obvious penalty, the Chase incident appeared to have very little to do with it.
This was not up for debate. Furthermore, 38 out of the 39 men in this event found out the regulations very quickly, so I accept that there may be some interpretation of them. Therefore, it wasn’t as though everyone was disobeying the law and there was widespread confusion. I know you read the regulation and are a little perplexed, but once more, Chase went above and above what was required.
“The Chase thing is about as blatant as it gets,” Gluck continued. He really turned the corner and came back up the racetrack.
Chase Elliott is not pleased with the blend line infraction.
Elliott was pretty miffed when he emerged from pit road, having been penalized and having passed through.
On his radio, Elliott exclaimed, “That’s not right.” “I followed the fu*king sheet exactly as instructed.”
Radio banter was also covered by SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Davey Segal.
“I mean, really, what the f***? I follow their fu*king instructions to the letter,” Elliott remarked. You tell me how the fuck I was on the racing surface because they mentioned that rather than line.
Elliott finished in P10 at IMS, but race winner Kyle Larson took away his lead in regular season points.
