Roughly one hour after the conclusion of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup series race at Pocono Raceway, race winner Denny Hamlin and second-place finisher Kyle Busch were disqualified after post-race inspection.
The disqualification of Hamlin – the first of a Cup race winner since the rule was implemented a few years ago – and Busch means Chase Elliott is the new the winner of the race.
The last time a Cup winner was disqualified was in 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis was disqualified for a large fuel cell in a race at Palm Beach Speedway.
The infractions on the Joe Gibbs Racing cars was aero related in the front fascia of the car.
“There was some issues discovered that affect aero of the vehicle,” Cup Series director Brad Norman said. “There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn’t have been, and that does basically come down to a DQ. It is a penalty, both for the 11 of Denny Hamlin and the 18 of Kyle Busch have been DQed. Their vehicles are being loaded in the NASCAR hauler. They’re going to go back to the R&D Center.”
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch during the NASCAR Cup race at Pocono: (Photo: Dennis Bicksler)
Norman said the penalties can be appealed, so further details won’t be available until that process has been played out. There will be no suspensions or points penalties.
Elliott, who now has won three of the last five races, never led once in the 160-lap race.
Busch also had his Stage 2 victory vacated, giving it to Ross Chastain.
In Stage 1, Hamlin finished third while Busch placed fourth. In Stage, 2, Hamlin also finished fifth.
As a result of the disqualifications, the new top 10 is Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones and Austin Dillon.
Click here for the updated NASCAR Cup race at Pocono results.
Hamlin’s disqualification was a delayed bookend to an eventful day for the Joe Gibbs Racing’s driver.
Starting from the pole, Hamlin got loose exiting Turn 1 and bounced off the outside wall. Later on a Lap 11 restart, Hamlin’s left-side tires dipped below the yellow line in Turn 2 and his No. 11 Toyota went for a spin to bring out the caution.
Finally, on a restart with 18 laps to go, Hamlin restarted second on the inside of Ross Chastain. In the latest chapter of their feud, Hamlin appeared to run Chastain up towards the wall. Chastain’s No. 1 car bounced off the wall, then careened into the No. 4 of Kevin Harvick and ending Chastain’s day.
“I think that’s something that’s been owed to me for a few months now,” Chastain told NBC Sports.
Hamlin had been as close as two laps short on fuel prior to the caution that created that restart.
“It’s the team, they were able to come back with a great strategy there to get us back up front for the mistake I made,” Hamlin told NBC Sports on the frontstretch as a mixture of cheers and boos rained from the grandstands. It was noted by NBC Sports’ Marty Snider, who asked if his contact with Chastain was payback.
“What did you want me to do?” Hamlin said. “What did you expect me to do? We got position on him and he just ran out of race track. … We’re just going to keep racing hard until we get the respect back from these guys. It’s not just that, we’ve been wrecked four times, twice while leading in the two months and I’m just at the end of it.”
CHASTAIN INTO THE WALL! pic.twitter.com/WWZmlpQYGi
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 24, 2022
Before the disqualification, Hamlin led 22 of 160 laps.
Busch had led a race-high 63 laps before he lost what would eventually be the lead to Chastain during green flag pit stops. Chastain leapfrogged him with a pit stop sequence of 36.5 seconds compared to Busch’s 38.1.
“We were trending loose on that run there where (Chastain) was trailing me and keeping up with me,” Busch told NBC Sports. “Figured that was our hinderance, so we snugged it up a little bit and over did it and was way too tight that whole last run.
“When (Hamlin) and (Chastain) were out in front of us, I was falling back from those guys. So we were luck to get a couple of cautions there, lucky to keep pace.”
The most notable finish outside the top 10 was Ty Gibbs in 16th.
The 19-year-old grandson of Joe Gibbs made his first career NASCAR Cup start in relief of Kurt Busch, who was ruled out due to concussion symptoms Sunday morning after his hard wreck in qualifying Saturday afternoon.
“The most important thing right now is about Kurt’s health and hopefully he can get back in this seat,” Gibbs said. “He drives way better than me so he deserves this. He’s been awesome. He’s helped me out so much. I want to say thank you to him. We had a fast McDonald’s Camry TRD.”
Gibbs said the the biggest surprise in his first Cup start was how dirty air affected his car.
“I was a little bit tight all day, so just trying to get front turn and trying to get more center turn which would help me. It was a learning day. I felt like I learned a lot. I’m very thankful. It was close to almost a top 15. It was fun racing with Brad (Keselowski). Never thought I’d race with these guys. It was just cool being next to them on the track. So, to 10-year-old Ty that means a lot. I don’t think I would ever expect that.”
For Michael McDowell, it was yet another top-10 finish for the 2021 Daytona 500 winner.
The Front Row Motorsports driver’s 6th-place finish was the best result for Ford on Sunday, as he was the only Ford driver to finish in the top 12. McDowell now has a career-best eight top 10s through 21 races. His previous best was five.
“It was a good day. I had a couple good restarts that got us track position, then I had one really bad one where we got hit in the left rear and about spun out and went back to last,” McDowell said. “That hurt us really bad. My guys called a good race and we tried some different strategies to try to get track position. We stayed out on old tires but I felt like if I got a good restart and got into the top 10 I could hold on. We restarted 16th with no tires and drove up to eighth so I am really proud of that finish. It is still not the day you want. You don’t want to be eighth, you want to win the race, but we are doing a great job and I feel like we are getting close.”
Keyword: Chase Elliott Pocono Winner After Hamlin, Kyle Busch Disqualified