Chase Elliott has been suspended from the next NASCAR Cup Series race in St. Louis after his contact with Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Coca 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Elliott and Hamlin wrecked off Turn 4 on lap 186 in Monday’s postponed race, which ended the event for both drivers. The two were racing side-by-side through the corner when Hamlin slid up the track and made contact with Elliott. It was enough contact to lead Elliott to bounce off the wall.
After hitting the wall, Elliott came left and hit Hamlin in the right rear quarter panel. The hook sent Hamlin head-on into the outside wall.
“We take this very seriously,” said NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “After looking at all the available resources: in-car camera, data, SMT, which basically gives us steering, gives us throttle, gives us braking, it was an intentional act by Chase in our opinion and our view after reviewing all the available resources there.”
Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal the penalty. However, the organization will request a playoff waiver from NASCAR.
Corey LaJoie will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet in St. Louis. Carson Hocevar will make his Cup Series debut by filling in for LaJoie at Spire Motorsports.
“Just watching the optic of it immediately from the tower, it was like, wow, it looked like a hard left-hand turn into the right-rear corner of the 11, which obviously turned the 11 into the front straightway wall there head-on,” said Sawyer. “So, then you … start looking at the data. There was some conversation about maybe a broken toe link on the right rear, and as you look through all that, nothing gave us the indication that on that particular contact with the fourth turn wall that anything was broke by looking at the steering, looking at in-car camera with hand position on the steering wheel and the way the steering wheel was turned hard to the left.
“It just supported what the optics were, and again, that’s why we landed on the penalty we did.”