NASCAR handed Chase Elliott a rare pit road penalty for not entering pit road single-file at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Needless to say, the Hendrick Motorsports driver wasn’t happy about it.
The incident took place towards the end of Stage 2. Elliott entered the pit road and ran into Team Penske’s Austin Cindric. Still, he swerved to the left to avoid any contact with the No. 2. This broke the usual single-file nose-to-tail, bumper-to-bumper formation as officiated by NASCAR.
Therefore, Elliott was sent to the back of the field for the restart to begin the final stage. As quoted by Jeff Gluck of The Athletic on X, the Dawsonville native had already given Cindric his position back. Elliott said (via Gluck on X),
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“Just have them look at it, because I gave the spot back. They all checked up, I moved left to not run in the back of someone and then I gave him the spot back before I even turned down. Just have them look at it. That's a very reasonable thing."
Chase Elliott finished 18th, bagging 22 points on the way. Elliott’s HMS teammate Kyle Larson won the race, marking his first victory of the season. He is now in the playoffs alongside William Byron, Christopher Bell, and Josh Berry.
Chase Elliott shares his feelings about Goodyear experimenting with the Next Gen car
Since the Next Gen car debuted in the 2022 Daytona 500, there have been safety issues, balance issues, and most importantly, issues with the racing product on short tracks. Goodyear has been switching things up by experimenting with different tire compounds, starting with last year’s All-Star race at North Wilkesboro.
While at Homestead-Miami, Frontstretch’s Dalton Hopkins asked Chase Elliott if he thinks that the changes made by Goodyear have helped improve the racing package on short tracks. Elliott replied (2:15),
“Seems like it’s better, for sure. And it seems like it’s large in part to the tire, truthfully. And the more I kind of look at it, the more I kind of just feel like, man maybe this tire thing is really we're onto something there.”
He added:
“But if there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my course of doing this is that just when you think you start to figure something out, you didn’t and you don’t. And whatever you think you know you probably didn’t to begin with,”
Next up for the 2020 Cup Series champion is the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Scheduled for Sunday, March 30, the 400-lap event will be televised on Fox Sports 1 from 3 pm ET onwards. Fans can also listen to live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
