NASCAR penalised Chase Elliott during Stage 1 of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for breaching the blend line regulation while exiting pit road.
NASCAR sent a message to drivers and teams the night before detailing the rule to minimise misunderstanding on race day, but Elliott still ended himself on the wrong side of it. Elliott was upset and yelled at his radio.
Speaking about the penalty on “The Teardown,” Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic both agreed that Elliott’s indignation was unfounded, since they believed he plainly breached a regulation that did not appear to confuse the rest of the pitch. The only other driver to get a penalty for a blend line infringement throughout the race was Brad Keselowski.
Chase Elliott is the victim of a blend line violation.
“I didn’t see why Chase was so upset – I understand the uncertainty, but the great majority of the field seemed to comprehend that rule,” Bianchi added. “The only two people penalised were Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott. And they both basically agreed that they misinterpreted it. However, if this was so unclear, you would expect more drivers to violate it. Elliott’s actions were rather severe. It’s clear that this should have been a penalty. What astounded me was Chase’s reaction. It was a meltdown unlike anything you’d seen from him before. Perhaps because it is the Brickyard Maybe because it is so difficult to pass.
“I was surprised by all of the many components that go into it.” I believed the Larson incident was near enough that you could overlook it; it didn’t disturb me at all. The Chase incident appeared to be about nothing, in the sense that it was a straightforward penalty. There was no dispute on this. And, although I recognise that there may be some interpretation of what the rules are, 38 of the 39 guys in this race figured it out rather fast. So it wasn’t like everyone was breaching the rules and there was widespread confusion. I realise you read the regulation and are a little perplexed, but what Chase did He went above and beyond the legal limits.”
Gluck continued: “The Chase thing is about as brazen as it gets. I mean, he came back up the track in the middle of a turn.”
Chase Elliott is upset following a blend line infraction.
Elliott emerged a lap down and irritated following the penalty and his pit road pass-through.
“That is not right,” Elliott said into his radio. “I did everything the fu*king document stated to do.”
Davey Segal of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio also discussed radio talk.
“What the f***?!” “I do precisely what they fu*king instruct me to do,” Elliott stated. “They didn’t say line, they said racing surface, so tell me how the fu*k I was on the racing surface.”
Elliott came away with a P10 finish at IMS but lost his regular season points lead to race-winner Kyle Larson.
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