Yahoo Autos Chase Elliott Declared NASCAR Cup Winner After Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch Disqualified at Pocono
Early in the evening, Denny Hamlin’s victory was overturned and he was disqualified after post-race tech.
So was Kyle Busch, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, who had finished second in the 160-lap, 400-mile race.
Top-10 JGR drivers Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. were not affected.
For about two hours on Sunday evening Toyota driver Denny Hamlin had 49 career NASCAR Cup Series victories, a record-setting seven at Pocono Raceway, and three this season. For a while, the centerpiece of Joe Gibbs Racing was riding high after his victory in the M&M’s 400 at the track in Pennsylvania.
But early in the evening Hamlin’s victory was overturned and he was disqualified after post-race tech. So was Kyle Busch, his JGR teammate, who had finished second in the 160-lap, 400-mile race. Top-10 JGR drivers Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. were not affected.
Cup Series managing director Brad Morgan addressed the media late in the evening. Understandably—since post-race inspections are a work in progress—there was only so much he could say:
“This is an appealable disqualification, so I can’t get into as many details as I'm sure you'd like,” he said. “We can do that once the appeal process has been exhausted. We were doing our post-race inspections; there were some issues discovered that affect aero of the vehicle. The part was the front fascia. There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn't have been, and that does basically come down to a DQ. It’s a penalty for both the 11 of Denny Hamlin and the 18 of Kyle Busch. Their vehicles are being loaded in the NASCAR hauler and are going to go back to the R&D Center.
“The final results have been changed to show the two DQs were there, and they have the opportunity to appeal it, and it'll be all sorted out by next week. I can’t get into all the details of what the issues were, but both vehicles had the same issue and they were not acceptable to pass the inspection.”
Following the disqualifications to the Nos. 11 and 18 cars, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran addressed reporters in the Pocono Media Center. pic.twitter.com/quADyCtaM1
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 25, 2022
Morgan went on: “It's unfortunate and we don't want to be here talking about this. We just saw a great race. Last thing you want to do is meet here afterwards and talk about this problem. But the teams and the owners and everybody are well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some pretty tight tolerances. There are some areas that all the teams are well aware that we cannot be going down the path that we had in the past with the other cars.
“It’s partly to do with the new car, and the rules have tightened up, and everyone has to kind of abide by our new rules, which everybody is well aware of. We saw enough that the DQ was warranted, and we are bringing the vehicles back for further evaluation, so we will look much closer at both vehicles. But as of right now we are hopefully not going to find anything else.”
With the 1-2 drivers off the board, third-finishing Chase Elliott was declared the winner… subject to detailed inspection at the NASCAR R&D Center next week. Tyler Reddick was moved from fourth to second, followed by Daniel Suarez, Bell, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon.
Hamlin got the first two of his (now, back to…) 48 Cup Series victories at Pocono in his Rookie of the Year season of 2006. If Sunday’s result had stood, he would have passed Jeff Gordon with six career Pocono victories. Given all that, it’s not surprising that after winning the pole on Saturday, the future Hall of Fame driver was generally expected to be up front all afternoon.
In what may well have been a preview of the final rounds of the upcoming 10-race Championship Playoff Series, Hamlin easily handled Busch at the end and – in a preview of a different sort – wrecked second-running Ross Chastain in the final laps as they contested the lead.
Clearly, Hamlin ran Chastain up the track exiting Turn 2 on lap 142 of 160. Chastain hit the outside wall, lost forward motion, then drifted to the left. There, he was rammed by Kevin Harvick—in the front pack, he was innocent of any malicious intent—and knocked to the apron, uninjured but done for the day.
CHASTAIN INTO THE WALL! pic.twitter.com/WWZmlpQYGi
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 24, 2022
That late caution set up the ninth and last restart with 13 laps remaining and threatening weather on the way. Hamlin and Busch quickly pulled away from Elliott, Bell, and fifth-running Suarez, and were unchallenged to the end. Xfinity Series star Ty Gibbs was scored 18th in his Cup Series debut, then advanced to 16th. The 19-year-old subbed for Kurt Busch, whose concussion-like symptoms hadn’t cleared enough for him to run the 400. He crashed hard Saturday in Cup qualifying and was grounded by doctors after a Sunday morning examination.
With the Chastain/Hamlin incident the only untoward moment of the race, it’s understandable that both drivers would be asked about it. It’s just as understandable that neither answered with his best shot. You get the feeling both realize their very public St. Louis and Atlanta feud isn’t over
“I mean, what did you want me to do?” Hamlin said, seemingly frustrated and irritated at the perfectly reasonable question. (All of this was before the DSQ was announced). “What did you expect me to do? We got position on him, and he just ran out of race track. We’re just going to keep racing hard until we get the respect back from these guys. It's not just that, we've been wrecked four times, twice while leading in the last 10 months. I’m at the end of it.”
Chastain didn’t seem overly-concerned about what happened as he raced for the lead. He has often spoken harshly about himself and his aggressive driving style, especially in light of recent high-profile incidents with Hamlin, Elliott, and McDowell. His brief post-Pocono comments left much unsaid.
“It was something that has been owed to me for a few months now,” he said after a rare DNF. “I’m proud of the effort by Trackhouse Racing and everybody on this No. 1 Chevy. It’s week- in and week-out that we keep bringing fast Chevy Camaros. To keep bringing bullets like that and keep bringing fast cars is a testament to everybody at Chevrolet.”
Despite starting from the pole, Hamlin didn’t lead until nine others had been at the front. Busch led 63 laps, Larson 18, Chastain 16, Bell 14, and Erik Jones 11. Hamlin led twice for 21 laps, including the final 18. The other 17 laps went to Ryan Blaney, Harrison Burton, Wallace, and Truex Jr.
The tour goes to Indianapolis next weekend for the 22nd of the year’s 26 regular-season races. The 10-race Playoff Series begins at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Sept. 4. Even with the DSQs and points changes, Sunday’s race didn’t create any major disruptions to the tentative 16-driver Playoff field.
UPDATED Results
NASCAR Cup Series Race
49th Annual M&Ms Fan Appreciation 400
Pocono Raceway
1. (3) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 160.
2. (16) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 160.
3. (9) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 160.
4. (11) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 160.
5. (4) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 160.
6. (25) Michael McDowell, Ford, 160.
7. (8) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 160.
8. (7) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 160.
