Chase Elliott has always been great at road courses. Last week at COTA, the Chevy star was in a position to earn his first top-5 finish of the current season but alas, Elliott accidentally got loose going through the esses portion of the field and went beyond the track limits. As a result, NASCAR slammed the #9 team with a penalty and Elliott had to settle for a disappointing P16 finish.
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But crew chief Alan Gustafson wasn’t going to let it slide that easily. Calling the penalty “way too stiff” for the crime committed in that situation, he told SiriusXM NASCAR radio, “I’m in favor of some warning system. I feel like the drivers need to know when they’re in infraction and you. We didn’t have any infractions during practice, and then having infractions during the race up until that point.”
🗯️ "I'm in favor of some warning system. I feel like drivers need to know when (there's an) infraction."
Does the punishment fit the crime?
More from @Hendrick9Team crew chief Alan Gustafson on track limits and how they can be fixed moving forward → https://t.co/MKhd9eLXG8 pic.twitter.com/tvLvu1pyso
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) March 27, 2024
“Certainly, I think Chase knew he got loose in that situation. But yeah, I just think you need some warning system that says, Hey! That’s one. you know. In my opinion, maybe three violations with just the– by a pass-through, not one,” he added. In no way did Gustafson deny the fact that Elliott had gotten loose; he just wanted NASCAR to police the race in a better way.
NASCAR’s justification regarding Chase Elliott’s penalty
NASCAR kept an eagle eye on the racetrack to prevent the drivers from cutting the course of the track to gain any possible performance advantage. But considering that it happened to the sport’s most popular driver and that what Elliott did wasn’t deliberate, some of the fans feel like perhaps NASCAR has taken it too far.
However, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, justified their decision, saying, “They kept coming up that he wheel-hopped, he had got loose, whatever that may be, that’s fair. I do believe that, but on the flip side you still have to make the call, or every driver, every team is going to be calling up (to the tower) and say, ‘Look, he got loose, he wheel hopped.'”
Some might wonder why NASCAR did not give a penalty to the drivers who got loose going through turn 1. Sawyer reasoned that and said, “There’s no lap time there. If there was lap time we would have to do it. The reason a lot of times they get out there, they get pushed out there.” Unfortunately, there is nothing that either Gustafson or Elliott can do other than eyeing Richmond to pack speed and finish up front.
