July 24, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Update: Chase Elliott wins Pocono Cup race after Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are DQed

Update: Following post-race inspection, NASCAR disqualified Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch and declared Chase Elliott the winner at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

Cup Series director Brad Moran spoke to the media following the process and offered an explanation of the infractions.

“There was some issues discovered that affect aero of the vehicle,” Moran said. “The part was the front fascia. There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn't have been, and that does basically come down to a DQ.

“It is a penalty, both for the 11 of Denny Hamlin and the 18 of Kyle Busch have been DQed. Their vehicles are being loaded in the NASCAR hauler. They're going to go back to the R&D Center.”

NASCAR also took the No. 34 of Michael McDowell, the top finishing Ford, and the Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Moran said the Nos. 11 and 18 car’s finishes were revised to show DQs and Joe Gibbs Racing will have an opportunity to appeal the penalties. Moran doesn’t anticipate any additional sanctions from NASCAR.

“It'll be all sorted out by next week,” Moran added. “I can't get into all the details of what the issues were, but both vehicles had the same issue, and unfortunately they were not acceptable to pass the inspection.

“But the teams and the owners and everybody is well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some pretty tight tolerances, and there are some areas that all the teams are well aware that we cannot be going down the path that we had in the past with the other cars. It is partly to do with the new car, and the rules have tightened up, and everyone has to kind of abide by our new rules, which everybody is well aware of.”

Hamlin dropped to 21st in the Cup standings following the revision. With Elliott's fourth win of the season, he expanded his point lead to 105 over Ross Chastain. 

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For Denny Hamlin, it was a mission accomplished at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

The driver of the No. 11 Fed Ex Toyota rallied after tagging the wall on the first lap and then spinning 40 laps later. 

And en route to his third win of the season, Hamlin forced Ross Chastain out of the lead and into the wall with 17 laps remaining in the M&M's Fan Appreciation 400.

“We're just going to keep racing hard until we get the respect back from these guys,” Hamlin said. “It's not just that, we've been wrecked four times, twice while leading in the last 10 months. I'm at the end of it.”

Hamlin’s seventh victory made him the all-time career leader in wins at the 2.5-mile track breaking a tie with Jeff Gordon.

“It's the team,” Hamlin added. “They just were able to come back with a great strategy there to get us back up front from the mistake I made.”

Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 63 laps, finished second followed by Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., and Bubba Wallace.

"The second-to-last run there where we had the 1 (Chastain) car there trailing us, he was a little better than us," Busch said. "It’s hard to pass, but having the car trending loose on me, we made an adjustment for that with as many laps as there was going to be to go with that last pit stop, but we just overdid it I guess and missed it on that last run, unfortunately. I was just way too tight and didn’t have the roll speed that I needed through the corners."

The new car proved to be problematic for a variety of drivers in the early stages of the race. Hamlin, who started from the pole tagged the wall after going wide in Turn 1 on the first lap and turned the lead over to Kyle Busch.

“I think I killed my race car,” Hamlin reported but soldiered on.

Austin Cindric spun in Turn 3 seven laps later to ignite the first caution. Aric Almirola also spun out of Turn 3 to trigger the second caution on Lap 28. The timing of the yellow bled over to the end of the stage with Larson grabbing his third stage victory of the season.

Bell took the lead on the Lap 35 restart. Before the field could get up to speed, Josh Bilicki spun in Turn 1 after cutting a tire. The race restarted on Lap 41—then slowed again after Hamlin spun in Turn 2 while running 12th. He dropped to 34th. Bell remained at the point for the Lap 45 restart, however, Corey LaJoie lost control of his car entering Turn 1 and collected McDowell in the process. McDowell recovered for the only top-10 finish in the Ford camp.

Kyle Busch returned to the lead on Lap 49. Six laps later, Joey Logano started green-flag pit stops. Busch came in for service on Lap 66 and turned the lead over to Ryan Blaney. Eight laps later, Erik Jones passed the No. 12 Ford for the lead. Jones’ progress after his teammate Ty Dillon spun in Turn 2 shortly after pitting.

Bubba Wallace and Blaney stayed on the track following the sixth caution while the remaining top 16 drivers pitted. Busch passed both Bubba and Blaney to regain the lead on the Lap 88 restart and held on to win the second stage on Lap 95.

Busch started the third stage in the lead with Chastain and Hamlin in tow on Lap 101. Blaney, who restarted sixth, fell apart in the final segment. He fell to 32nd after a left rear went flat in Turn 1 on Lap 108. During green-flag stops, Buescher spun coming to pit road on Lap 127. Chastain assumed the lead on the next lap.

On Lap 138, Blaney spun again off of Turn 3 and crashed into the pit road wall—the eighth and final caution. He finished 35th, 25 laps down. But the fireworks were far from over. On the restart, Hamlin pushed Chastain up the track exiting Turn 1. Chastain lost control of his car, bounced off the wall and Kevin Harvick slammed into the No. 1 Chevy.

“He drove in deep, we drove in deep, I’m not even sure we made contract, maybe we did,” Hamlin said. “And he just ran out of race track. He knew I was going to race him hard. What else did he want me to do after the wrecks that we’ve had? We were going for the win.”

While Harvick soldiered on to a 29th-place result, Chastain’s day was done.

"I think that's something that has been owed to me for a few months now,” said Chastain after his six-race top 10 streak ended.

Clearly, Hamlin agreed. He seized the lead on Lap 143 and held serve over the final 18 laps for the 49th victory of his career—tying him for 15th on the all-time win list with former teammate Tony Stewart. Growing up on the outskirts of Richmond, Hamlin said he could have ever imagined accomplishing the feat.

“I just wanted to be a local short track racer in Virginia,” Hamlin said. “That's all I really cared about.”

Elliott increased his point lead over Chastain to 100. Ty Gibbs, who made his Cup debut in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota subbing for Kurt Busch, finished 18th.