Adding to its list of inconsistent decisions, NASCAR race control penalized Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski for violating the blend line rule during the recent Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis. Both drivers were forced to a pass-through penalty as punishment for the same. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was not a big fan of the sanctioning body’s call and voiced against it on “Dale Jr. Download.”
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He noted that many drivers swung out from the pit road’s runoff lane to the racing surface to get a better entry into the track’s Turn 2 and that it was a widespread move that had never been worthy of conversation. “Very common,” he said. “Some drivers are more aggressive than others, in terms of how far they swing out, but it’s never been a topic of conversation.”
What has him estranged is the sudden heavy officiating that’s being done in the matter. He continued, “Now, to pop a couple of drivers in the middle of the race, when others, we know, are probably doing and are doing the same thing, it just felt loosey-goosey. It’s not a great look.” There aren’t any apparent reasons why NASCAR would levy penalties on particular drivers if others had done the same.
Reasoning its decision, the sanctioning body shared specific wordings from the rule book to showcase why Keselowski and Elliott were punished. Nevertheless, Elliott still felt that pre-race instructions left a lot to the driver’s interpretation. Keselowski, too, contended that he had only done what he had in numerous other outings to the Brickyard.
Had it not been for the penalty, the RFK Racing co-owner might have had a better shot at winning the race. But bad fuel strategies ended his day on a different end. Elliott salvaged a tenth-place finish for his efforts. With complaints of inconsistent decision-making gathering momentum from drivers, it is high time NASCAR earned some goodwill from the community.
Dale Jr. concluded, “This is not consistent. It is what it is, it’s over and done. I mean, Brad was still in a position to win this race, albeit on some terrible fuel strategy. The No. 9 was able to rebound. This was just not a great decision or call, because it wasn’t really well defined, in my opinion, beforehand.”
