NASCAR sets record straight on Chase Elliott Homestead-Miami penalty

NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer has set the record straight on the penalty imposed on Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott at Homestead-Miami. 

On lap 169 of the NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet ZL1 was handed a penalty for not entering pit road in a single file line.

After starting the race from 18th, he had moved up to 14th by the end of Stage 1 and to ninth by the end of Stage 2. However, the penalty for the pit lane infringement left him finishing back in 18th. The driver fumed over the team radio, “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 'em look at it. That's a very reasonable thing.”

Sawyer explained the reason for the penalty, commenting on SiriusXM Radio:

“There’s actually two parts of it,” Sawyer said. “If we’re under green flag conditions and I’ll use the Daytona and Talladega track types, and even Homestead-Miami Speedway, the competition is green, it’s live and when they’re coming to pit road, they’ll run as wide around 3 and 4 as they can at speed so then they have to get slowed down to pit road speed by the time they get to the yellow line so therefore we can see cars that will enter side by side under green flag conditions.

“Under yellow flag conditions, we had a caution and captured the field and rode around under those conditions for at least a lap and maybe multiple laps so everyone has been captured and single file so by that point, there’s no reason to not be in a single file line as you enter pit road.

“The reason the rule is in place is safety. In the case when the 9 and he was beside the 2, just imagine, the 2 is pitting in the first pit box, so if he’s in line, as soon as he crosses the pit entry line, he’s going to be turning left to get in his box. If there’s another car to his inside, he’s going to turn him around on pit road.

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

"We can see chaos without introducing to pit road like we saw with the 22 and 21 but in this case, you just have to be single-file. It’s straight forward. If you look at the in car of the 9, it’s pretty straight forward. We don’t see a lot of it but we do see it from time to time.”

He added:

“I believe what happens there is that when the lead pack of cars, the leader second third fourth or fifth, they will accelerate, and they won’t pass the caution vehicle but they will pull up as fast as they can to get to that line to get some separation,” Sawyer said.

“This leads to an accordion affect, and drivers just need to manage that. We put the rule in place for safety for those first few pit boxes there.”