By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
After finishing 1-2 in Sunday’s Cup Series race from Pocono Raceway, both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch have been disqualified after failing postrace technical inspection. Third-place Chase Elliott is now the winner.
The issues, which are appealable, found were in the front fascias of the cars which “affected the aero of the vehicles.”
Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director, spoke to the media following the decision by NASCAR.
“There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere that it shouldn’t have been,” Moran said. “That does basically come down to a DQ. Their vehicles are being loaded into the NASCAR hauler, they’re going back to the R&D Center. The final results have been changed to show the two DQs are there.
“They have the opportunity to appeal. It will be all sorted out by next week. Both vehicles had the same issue and were not acceptable to pass.”
The result marks the first time since 1960 that a Cup race has multiple disqualifications. Moran says it’s unfortunate to have the issues following the historic feat by Hamlin, who became Pocono’s winningest driver with the seventh victory.
“It’s unfortunate. We don’t want to be here talking about this,” he said. “We just saw a great race. The last thing we wanted to do was meet here afterwards and talk about this problem.
“But, the teams and the owners and everybody are well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some tight tolerances. There are some ares that all the teams are well aware that we cannot go down the path we had in the past with the other car.”