Did Chase Elliott deserve a blend line penalty here? pic.twitter.com/eX9EPiOGRU
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) July 21, 2024
Chase Elliott is in a tight battle for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Regular-Season Championship with his teammate Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Denny Hamlin. All four drivers have been running inside the top four of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
However, Elliott’s race and Regular-Season championship hopes hit a minor snag as he was busted with a blend line violation while exiting pit road on his opening pit stop of the race.
NASCAR determined that Elliott did not wait long enough after the exit of Turn 2 to blend onto the race track. Upon the ruling being relayed to him on his radio, Elliott was irate.
“That’s not right. I did exactly what the fucking sheet said to do,” Elliott fired to crew chief Alan Gustafson.
Elliott continued, “I mean what the fuck? [inaudible] Do exactly what they fucking tell us to do. They didn’t say line, they said racing surface, so you tell me how the fuck I was on the racing surface.”
Elliott would be called to pit road to serve a pass-thru penalty, which would drop him to 17th in the running order.
Following the situation, NASCAR’s Mike Forde shared the notation from the sanctioning body to the drivers pre-race about the blend line violation:
NASCAR sent updated language to the drivers yesterday morning to clarify the pit road acceleration lane rule. This is what was sent. Portion officiated for 9 and 6 penalties is 'stay off the racing surface.' pic.twitter.com/3LplnZbv6s
— Mike Forde (@mforde) July 21, 2024
While the situation is definitely frustrating for Elliott, it was likely the fact that the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has committed a pit-road penalty for the second week in a row that exacerbated his anger.
Elliott came into the day with a three-point lead over Larson, his teammate, for the regular-season point lead. Reddick, the Brickyard 400 polesitter, was 15 points back, and Hamlin was 20 points behind.
The standings could see a swing in the opening Stage of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 as Elliott will not be in a position to score Stage Points.
