Chase Elliott have been named Sunday’s Cup Series race winner due to technical reasons, however he’s not about to demand a trophy from Denny Hamlin.
The HMS No.9 driver was confirmed as the winner of the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 Sunday at Pocono Raceway following the top two finishers, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, were disqualified. The Nos. 11 and 18 cars failed a post-race inspection.
This meant that the race win was awarded to P3 finisher Chase Elliott to pick up his forth win of 2022.
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Fox reporter Bob Pockrass on Monday asked Chase Elliott how will go about getting the trophy from Denny Hamlin.
“I hadn’t really even thought about it,” Elliott said. “Honestly, if he wants to keep it, he can keep it as far as I’m concerned. He crossed the finish line first. I haven’t really thought about that. That’s a great question.
.@ChaseElliott was flying home with his dad and didn't have any cell service until he landed. He was surprised to hear the news of the Hamlin/Busch disqualifications, but he doesn't want to win that way and is still more thinking about what he could have done better in the race.
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) July 25, 2022
“I didn’t really feel like I earned it on track yesterday. If he wants to keep it, then I’m good with that.” he added
Chase Elliott is first in the regular season standings and leads the playoff race.
Joe Gibbs admitted that they were shocked to learn the news about the infraction in the two cars and they will be reviewing every part of the process that led to the aftermath saying,
“We were shocked to learn of the infraction that caused our two cars to fail NASCAR’s post-race technical inspection. We plan to review every part of the process that led to this situation,”.