INDIANAPOLIS — “Not sure.”
Chase Elliott uttered those words as he quickly walked away from his No. 9 Chevrolet on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when asked about the penalty that upended his race.
Not sure would be the way to describe how some in the garage seemed to understand the blend line rule before Sunday’s Brickyard 400.
Elliott and Brad Keselowski were the only drivers penalized for the blend line violation during the race, so others figured it out if they hadn’t already.
But the penalty altered the day for Elliott and Keselowski, who both had to use creative strategy to get back through the field. Keselowski’s gamble failed, as he ran out fuel while leading in overtime. Elliott finished 10th while teammate Kyle Larson won.
Elliott has yet to win any of NASCAR’s crown jewel races — Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 and Brickyard 400. Larson needs only a Daytona 500 win to have won each of those events.
Larson’s victory also allowed him to take the points lead from Elliott. Larson leads Elliott by 10 points with four races left in the regular season.
Elliott’s race Sunday turned on Lap 25 when he and Larson pitted under green.
When they exited pit road, they went on the acceleration lane. In the middle of Turns 1 and 2, Elliott’s car drifted out of the acceleration lane and over two painted white lines. He had all four tires on the racing surface.
Chase Elliott (lead car in photo) is seen after crossing over both painted white lines and on to the racing surface while exiting pit road. Kyle Larson is seen between the white lines. NASCAR penalized Elliott for a blend line violation for getting on the racing surface. Larson did not violate the rule. Photo: NBC Sports.
Chase Elliott (lead car in photo) is after crossing over both painted white lines and on to the race surface while exiting pit road. Kyle Larson is seen between the white lines. NASCAR penalized Elliott for a blend line violation for getting on the racing surface. Larson did not violate the rule because he did not cross the second white line and get on the racing surface. Photo: NBC Sports.
Larson followed Elliott, but Larson didn’t venture out as far as Elliott did. Larson crossed the first white line and put his right-side tires on the second white line but was not deemed by NASCAR to be on the racing surface.
Elliott was furious and crew chief Alan Gustafson was flabbergasted on the team’s radio after NASCAR penalized Elliott. Gustafson sought an explanation from NASCAR.
Larson said after his victory that the wording of the rule was a point of contention ahead of the event.
“We kind of as a team communicated, or tried to, on Friday of, ‘What is the rule?’” Larson said. “None of us knew what the rule was. I don’t think NASCAR initially knew what the rule was because then we started kind of getting communication with them.
“Afterwards, I think Chad Knaus (vice president of competition at Hendrick Motorsports) was getting our opinion. Drivers on a group text were in, all that. When I was here for the (Indianapolis) 500, you’re allowed to kind of straddle that first white line. You’re not allowed to get your lefts over it. I was kind of used to that and did that on Friday.
“I think it was Saturday probably before the Xfinity race, I think they had released the rule.”
A NASCAR spokesperson posted on social media a portion of the updated rule sent to drivers. The rule stated:
“Returning to the track while exiting the pits, vehicles must use the acceleration lane through the exit of Turn 2. Check your mirrors and come up the racetrack.
“You may swing wide beyond the white line on the acceleration lane between Turns 1 and 2. Stay off the racing surface.”
Said Larson: “The way I understood the rule was that you couldn’t get your right sides over the far white line because then you would be deemed on the racing surface. That’s what I did.”
What did he think when he saw Elliott swing wide on to the track?
“I was like, ‘Man, that’s got to be a penalty. If it’s not, at least I know how much further I can swing out.’
“I think it took them a couple laps to find a replay of it. Ultimately he got a penalty and I didn’t. I knew what I did was legal.”
This marks the second week in a row that Elliott has cost himself a chance at a win due to a penalty.
Last weekend at Pocono, he exited pit road third in what was to have been his last stop of the day. He was caught speeding — his first pit road speeding penalty in 93 races. It was in a section where nearly the entire field was found to be going too fast before the race when all the cars went down pit road to check their tachometer readings.
Asked this weekend about the Pocono speeding infraction, Elliott admitted he still had questions.
“I still don’t know, to be honest with you,” he said two days before the Brickyard 400. “I haven’t gotten a straight answer. You’re not going to get a straight answer from the NASCAR front, which is fine. But yeah, it was a bummer.
“I mean whether the zone was too short or the zone wasn’t short enough, we had made ‘X’ amount of pit stops throughout the day that I wasn’t speeding. And everybody else, aside from the handful of guys that got caught, didn’t speed either. So I just kind of chalk it up to mistake on my part, really at the end of the day. There’s nothing I can do about it, so what does it matter now, really? Just try not to make that mistake again.
“But it was certainly – from how we would typically set our pit road, that had us in a different box than what we would typically be each weekend. I just didn’t do a great job of keeping that in mind throughout the race, and ultimately it flashed red in the zone on their screen. I didn’t feel like I did anything different. … But just the timing of it and everything else, certainly sped in their book. They make the rules, right? So off we went.”