After an in-race scuffle with Denny Hamlin at Charlotte, NASCAR has suspended Chase Elliott for one race.
Tempers were unnecessarily high during the 2023 installment of the Coca-Cola 600. After rain delayed the race until Monday rather than a Sunday evening showing, there was plenty of action as Ryan Blaney won the crown jewel race for the first time in his career.
Earlier on in the event, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin, two high-caliber championship contenders, took each other out on lap 186 of 400. Hamlin had run up the track a bit coming out of turn 4, pushing Elliott nearly into the wall. Elliott retaliated by veering hard into Hamlin's right-rear, sending both crashing their way to the garage.
Afterwards, Hamlin was irate, saying that Elliott should not be driving and that NASCAR needs to suspend him for the upcoming race.
NASCAR: Chase Elliott has been suspended for one race following Charlotte incident
NASCAR announced that Elliott will indeed be forced to sit out for this weekend's race at Worldwide Technology Raceway (commonly referred to as Gateway). One of the league's higher-ups had the following to say about their findings when investigating the incident at Charlotte:
We take this very seriously", Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition, said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "The incident that happened off Turn 4, again after looking at all the available resources — in-car camera, data, SMT, which basically gives us (a car's) steering, throttle, gives us braking — it was an intentional act by Chase in our opinion."
So there you have it, folks. After missing six consecutive races earlier in the season with a broken leg sustained in a snowboarding incident, the 27-year-old Elliott will once again miss time. The five-time Most Popular Driver is set to be replaced by Corey LaJoie, who drives full-time for Spire Motorsports in the Cup Series. He has long been tabbed as a driver who would be in contention if only he drove in better equipment, so this will serve as a bit of an audition for him.
On the season, LaJoie has just one top-ten finish but he has yet to finish worse than 30th in any races and is known as one of the more respected figures in the garage area.
Replacing LaJoie in the No. 7 car for Spire will be young gun Carson Hocevar, who has been off to a hot start in both the Truck and Xfinity Series in 2023. The 20-year-old is coming off of back-to-back top-10 finishes in Xfinity action and already has a win in Trucks, the first of his NASCAR career.
