NASCAR has suspended driver Chase Elliott for one race after wrecking Denny Hamlin, the series announced Tuesday. Officials ruled that Elliott acted intentionally when he made contact with Hamlin in Monday’s Coca-Cola 600.
Elliott was racing side-by-side with Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway when both drove tight to the top of the turn on Lap 186 before Hamlin squeezed Elliott, who brushed the wall. Elliott swerved left in his No. 9 Chevrolet and hit the rear of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota, sending him head first into the outside wall. Hamlin then spun out and ended up in the grass.
Hamlin’s car was totaled and Elliott’s beyond repair after the incident, leaving both cotenders out for the remainder of NASCAR’s longest race.
HAMLIN:Fumes at Elliott after wreck in Coca-Cola 600: ‘He shouldn’t be racing’
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Elliott will miss the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday. It will be the seventh race he’s missed this season. NASCAR’s most popular driver missed six races earlier this year after breaking his tibia following a snowboarding accident in Colorado, prior to the March 5 race at Las Vegas.
“We understand NASCAR’s need to maintain consistency in its officiating. The penalty will not be appealed, and we will submit a formal request for a playoff waiver,” Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement. “Corey LaJoie, 31, will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. We are grateful to Corey for stepping in and to the team at Spire Motorsports for making him available.”
After the race, which Ryan Blaney won, Hamlin voiced his extreme displeasure with Elliott’s action.
“I got right-rear hooked in the middle of the straightaway,” Hamlin told reporters on Monday. “It’s a tantrum, and he shouldn’t be racing next week. Right rear hooks are absolutely unacceptable.”
Hamlin compared his incident to the October one between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson where the former was suspended for one week for intentionally wrecking the latter in the Las Vegas playoff race.
Elliott denied his action was intentional saying, “The 11 ran us up in the fence there, and once you tear the right side off these things, it’s kind of over. Once you hit the wall in these things, you can’t drive them anymore. Just an unfortunate circumstance.”
