Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying in Indianapolis produced a viral highlight when Chase Elliott returned a stray notepad to Denny Hamlin on pit road. Instead of grabbing the notepad and using it to their advantage, Elliott, who has not always agreed with Hamlin, returned it to the No. 11 driver. While it had nothing to do with his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the notepad contained important information on the 23XI Racing team. During the most recent episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin went into detail, explaining what was on the notes Elliott returned to him.
“A bunch of words and numbers,” Hamlin said, declined to go into specifics about what was on the document, implying it was significant. “… He could have presented it to his crew chief and engineers and explained the No. 45’s actions. This was the auto chief’s notepad. It contained pages. I heard they were giving him s— in the hauler for dropping it.” Even if it had nothing to do with Hamlin, Elliott earns some good man points for returning the notepad without hesitation. Continuing, Hamlin provided further context for the issue, including how it may have worked against Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 team if Elliott had not returned it.
