July 25, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Chase Elliott was victorious on Sunday, but were there really any winners at Pocono?

NASCAR was thrust into an impossible position at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

After the Nos. 11 and 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas of ostensible race winner Denny Hamlin and runner-up Kyle Busch failed post-race inspection because of tape added to the front fascias of the cars, the sanctioning body had no choice but to disqualify the top two finishers.

That made a winner of Chase Elliott, the third driver across the finish line.

Unless you’re a fan of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet—and Elliott—or a supporter of Ross Chastain, or any other driver done wrong by Hamlin or Busch, the decision to take a race away probably wasn’t too popular. 

After all, the last time fans had to process a Cup driver having a win taken away was in 2008 when Regan Smith went below the yellow line to pass Tony Stewart for the lead at Talladega. Seventeen years earlier, Ricky Rudd seized the point by spinning Davey Allison on the white-flag lap at Sonoma Raceway. NASCAR black-flagged Rudd and waved the checkers for Allison. Rudd was scored second when officials could have easily scored him 18th—the last car on the lead lap.

But neither of those cases involved an inspection issue dealing with the manipulation of a race car.

It’s highly unlikely that anyone attending the M&Ms Fan Appreciation 400 witnessed the last time a Cup winner was disqualified for that reason. Emanuel Zervakis crossed the finish line first at Wilson, N.C., Speedway in April 1960 but was DQ's for an illegal car.

Changing the results after the fact is never easy, except for the person who cuts and pastes the corrections. From the photographers that snap the post-race—pictures with no meaning—to media grabbing quotes for stories and broadcasts that suddenly become irrelevant, to sanctioning bodies and sponsors scrambling to script damage control statements, it’s never fun. Add to that list the sponsors whose names are on the cars that likely entertained clients and/or vendors at the track, celebrated in Victory Lane then went on their merry way only to be asking themselves later, ‘What the hell happened?’

Elliott discussed the win via Zoom on Monday morning. The 26-year-old second-generation racer learned he had been declared the winner when he landed in Dawsonville, Georgia, with his father Bill. At his team meeting this week, Elliott said the crew would debrief the race as if they finished third—where he actually crossed the line. Elliott was gracious with his responses but expressed no joy with the outcome.

“I don't think any driver wants to win that way—I certainly don’t,” Elliott said. “I don’t know what went on. I had already left. Finished third, was just trying to think about what we could do to be better.

“For me, I really don’t feel right celebrating someone else’s misfortune, number one. Number two, it could change by Thursday or Friday or whenever. But the way I feel is I don’t know the details of what went on. I don’t know what made them make that decision. It’s not something I’m necessarily proud of. It’s not something I’m going to boast about throughout the course of this situation. I thought we were very fortunate to finish third, to be quite honest with you…No race car driver wants to win that way. Whether it’s overturned or not overturned, I’m not going to celebrate someone’s misfortune. It doesn’t seem right to me.”

Elliott was even willing to let Hamlin keep the trophy given that the No. 11 Toyota crossed the finish line first. Perhaps the greater gift was Joe Gibbs Racing surviving with just the disqualifications. NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said on Sunday night that he didn’t expect any further penalties—which is somewhat surprising given the warnings NASCAR directed at any team that manipulated the body of the new car.

“We saw enough that the DQ was warranted, and we are bringing the vehicles back for further evaluation, so we will look much closer at both vehicles,” Moran said at Pocono. “But as of right now, no, we are hopefully not going to find anything else, but we are going to inspect them further when we get them back to the R&D Center.”

Given that outcome, it stands to reason why Joe Gibbs Racing elected not to appeal the disqualifications. While it’s likely someone ratted out the JGR teams, clearly the cars were modified. Wally Brown, Director of Competition for Joe Gibbs Racing offered the following mea culpa on Twitter: 

“In our review of the post-race infractions on the 11 and 18 cars at Pocono, it was discovered that a single piece of clear tape was positioned over each of the lower corners of the front fascia ahead of the left-front and right-front wheel openings on both those cars. The added pieces were 2 inches wide and 5 1/2 inches long with a thickness of 0.012 inches and installed under the wrap. This change in our build process was not properly vetted within our organization, and we recognize it is against NASCAR’s rules. We apologize to everyone for this mistake, and we have made changes to our process to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Until next time…