Elton Sawyer has opened up on the miscommunication between Chase Elliott and NASCAR that took place during the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. During the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR penalized the #9 driver for touching the blend line, leaving him furious. Sawyer has come up to sort it out.
NASCAR penalized Elliott after he failed to stay below the line while exiting the pit road and was on his way to the track. They punished him with a pass-through penalty, and it indeed was a race-ruining penalty.
It was Elliott’s second penalty in as many races, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver was absolutely furious. He hit out at NASCAR on the radio and said that the penalty was not right, as he did “exactly” what the sheet (handout) said to do.
Now, Sawyer, NASCAR’s vice-president of competition, has come up to clear the air and share NASCAR’s stance on the incident.
“As you look at the video, that basically says that you have to stay in the acceleration lane there until you exit Turn 2, then you blend up on the racetrack.
“NASCAR then sent drivers additional information “to help clarify any confusion that may have come out of the videos that at no point could you go up on the racing surface. So we felt like that we were in a pretty good place,” Sawyer said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.” (0:17- 0:44)
He added:
“Obviously, communication is something that we pride ourselves on and want to make sure our teams and drivers all understand, our fans understand, any nuances, if you will, around a particular venue that is different. We didn’t get a lot of questions back on the information that went out to the teams, so we felt like we were in a pretty good place.” (0:45-1:08)
Eventually, Chase Elliott finished his race in 10th place, ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and behind Noah Gragson. He had started the race from third.
