Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, and Daniel Suárez were penalized for speeding on pit road last week at Pocono Raceway. It was a critical time late in the NASCAR race, and it cost the 9 team. Chase Elliott was capable of running in front. In reality, had the penalty not occurred, Larson and Elliott would have started in the top five. Instead, they had to drive to the back of the field and navigate through traffic.
This week, Elliott was asked about the penalty. He had not received a speeding penalty on pit road in 92 races before Pocono.
“I don’t know how to be honest with you. I haven’t received a straight answer, you know. “You won’t get a straight answer from the NASCAR front, which is fine,” Chase Elliott told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “But, well, it was a bummer. Whether the zone was too short or not short enough, we had done X number of pit stops during the day, and I was not speeding. Everyone else, with the exception of the few who were captured, did not speed. In the end, I just put it up to a mistake on my part. I can’t do anything about it, so what’s the point now?
There was certainly, from how we would typically set our pit road, that had us in a different box than what we would typically be on each weekend, and I just didn’t do a great job of keeping that in mind throughout the race and ultimately flashed red in the zone. On their screen. I don’t feel like I did anything different, I’m not talking about my bubbles, I don’t feel like I did anything different on my end than I had done all day. Just the timing of it and everything else is certainly – sped in their book which is, they make the rules, right? So, off we went.”
