In a stunning development, NASCAR announced Sunday evening that Chase Elliott has been declared the winner of the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono Raceway after the cars of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch failed post-race technical inspection.
After Hamlin took the checkered flag in Sunday’s race with Kyle Busch right behind him in second, both Joe Gibbs Racing cars failed post-race inspection, resulting in both drivers disqualified from Sunday’s race. As a result, Elliott, who crossed the finish line in third, was declared the winner under NASCAR rules.
The win is Elliott’s fourth of the 2022 season and 17th of his career. This is the first time the winner of a Cup Series race has been disqualified for failing post-race inspection since NASCAR resumed the practice of stripping wins from cars deemed illegal in 2019.
M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 results
- #9 – Chase Elliott
- #8 – Tyler Reddick
- #99 – Daniel Suarez
- #20 – Christopher Bell
- #5 – Kyle Larson
- #34 – Michael McDowell
- #19 – Martin Truex Jr.
- #23 – Bubba Wallace
- #43 – Erik Jones
- #3 – Austin Dillon
According to NASCAR, the violations in the No. 11 Toyota driven by Hamlin and the No. 18 Toyota driven by Busch related to front fascia aerodynamics, though officials did not offer details on what the exact violation was.
“There was really no reason why there was any material that was somewhere it shouldn’t have been. And that basically boils down to a DQ,” Cup Series general manager Brad Moran said.
Due to the nature of the infraction, neither Hamlin nor Busch’s team will be able to appeal the penalty. Both cars will be taken back to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.
This is the first time NASCAR has stripped a driver of a NASCAR Cup Series race win for failing post-race technical inspection in 62 years. In an April 1960 race at Wilson Speedway, Emanuel Zervakis was disqualified for having too large a fuel tank, causing NASCAR to award the win to Joe Weatherly.
Here is a recap of Sunday’s race written immediately after the checkered flag. Some details have been changed to reflect the official final results:
Hamlin v. Chastain, Part III
After a quick pit stop allowed Ross Chastain to take the lead from Kyle Busch during a cycle of green-flag stops, Hamlin had moved into second and was looking to make a run at Chastain when a crash by Ryan Blaney led to a caution with 23 laps to go. That pitted Chastain and Hamlin side by side on the ensuing restart, which is where things got really interesting.
Down the track at the bottom of Turn 1, Hamlin forced a corner angle, leaning into Chastain’s door as the two exited the corner side by side. other to get the lead. Hamlin’s aggressive move sent Chastain running wide and up the racetrack, where he hit the outside wall and then fired into the path of Kevin Harvick, who spun Chastain into the inside wall.
All optics suggested Hamlin’s move was payback against Chastain for two incidents in the past two months at Gateway and Atlanta. For his part, Hamlin made it clear he would stay in his position given the way Chastain and others have run.
“I mean, what did you want him to do? What did you expect him to do?,” Hamlin asked rhetorically in his post-race interview. “We got a position on him, and he just ran out of track … We’re going to keep racing until we get these guys’ respect back.
“It’s not just that – we’ve been smashed four times, twice while I was leading, in the last 10 months. I’m at the end.”
While Hamlin didn’t directly answer whether or not the score had been settled between him and Chastain, Chastain seemed to accept it as such, acknowledging that Hamlin owed her one.
“I think that’s something that’s been owed to me for a few months now,” Chastain told NBC Sports. “…I’ve been owed this and probably more for a few months now.”
Unfortunately, the move from Hamlin to Chastain came with some collateral damage for a driver trying to make the playoffs. Harvick’s contact with Chastain caused Harvick to go from running fourth to finishing 29th. As a result, Harvick is now 83 points behind Martin Truex Jr. for the last playoff spot in points with five races to go.
Ty for your help
While Hamlin’s day saw him up and down, his 23XI Racing team had plenty of ups and downs to deal with. After a crash in qualifying on Saturday that left him with concussion-like symptoms, Kurt Busch was not cleared to race by NASCAR on Sunday morning. That meant Ty Gibbs, a star in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and grandson of Joe Gibbs, was signed to replace Busch and make his Cup debut behind the wheel of the No. 45.
Gibbs spent much of the race logging laps in his first action behind the wheel of a Cup car, but was able to make the experience count at the finish. Gibbs moved into the top 15 late in the race before settling down to finish a respectable 16th.
Whether or not Gibbs’ replacement services will continue to be needed remains to be seen. A statement from Busch released Sunday suggested he was aiming to return to competition next week at Indianapolis.
Summary of race results
- With a third-place finish, Daniel Suarez secured his fifth top-five finish of the year, setting a new career best for top-five finishes in a single season. Suarez’s previous best had been four top fives in 2019.
- While a fifth-place finish isn’t much for a driver of Kyle Larson’s caliber, his finish was significant on a Sunday that marked crew chief Cliff Daniels’ first race after a four-race suspension for losing a wheel in Sonoma. With Daniels back on top of the pit box, Larson led for the first time since Sonoma, leading the field 18 laps before finishing in the top 10.
- Michael McDowell and Front Row Motorsports continue to show how far they’ve come. With a sixth-place finish, McDowell continued to build on his career-high number of top-10 finishes, and now has eight on the year, exactly double the amount he achieved in 2020, which at the time was a career high for the longtime partner finally enjoying sustained success.
- How quickly the narrative changes: Bubba Wallace was in the top five, led multiple laps for the first time since Talladega in April and finished eighth to score back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time in his career at the Cup Wallace’s fourth top 10 of the year surpasses the amount he scored in all of 2021, and just one more will tie his career-high total in 2020.
- Some necessary races inside the Top 10: Erik Jones salvaged his weekend after a massive points penalty and the loss of his crew chief for a technical infringement, leading 11 laps and finishing ninth. Austin Dillon finished 10th, scoring his first top 10 finish since Darlington in May. Alex Bowman finished 11th to snap a two-race DNF streak due to crashes.
- Harrison Burton is starting to make a regular appearance in this section of our recap. After using an alternative strategy early in the race, Burton led a handful of laps for the fourth straight week. He later finished 23rd, becoming the most successful rookie after an early crash ruined Austin Cindric’s career.
Next Race
The NASCAR Cup Series hits the bricks next weekend as they head to the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the second race around the track’s course. The Verizon 200 at the Brickyard is next Sunday at 2:30 pm ET.