NASCAR: Chase Elliott’s penalty rescinded

NASCAR has rescinded the penalty issued to Chase Elliott for going below the double yellow line on the final lap of the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott finished in sixth place in the second race of the round of 12 of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Then he finished in 22nd.

Now the driver of the #9 Chevrolet has officially been scored in fifth.

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NASCAR originally issued Elliott a penalty which dropped him from sixth place to 22nd, the final position on the lead lap, for going below the double yellow line to make a pass on the race’s final lap coming out of turn four of the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama.

Now that penalty has been rescinded after the #9 team filed a formal protest, which led NASCAR to perform an official review to determine that he did nothing wrong due to the fact that he was forced below the double yellow line.

However, NASCAR did end up penalizing Roush Fenway Racing’s Chris Buescher for forcing Elliott to go below the double yellow line. Instead of finishing in sixth place, Buescher has now been scored in 22nd.

The reason why Elliott finished in fifth place instead of his initial sixth is because of the fact that original second place finisher Matt DiBenedetto of Wood Brothers Racing was dropped to 21st for pushing Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron below the double yellow line on the final lap.

The only other change in finishing order due to this update is the fact that Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman dropped from fifth to sixth place. He had originally crossed the line in seventh ahead of Buescher in eighth but was promoted by two spots due to the penalties issued to DiBenedetto and Elliott.

Here are the updated race results after NASCAR rescinded Elliott’s penalty.

Race Results
1st – Denny Hamlin
2nd – Erik Jones
3rd – Ty Dillon
4th – William Byron
5th – Chase Elliott
6th – Ryan Newman
7th – Tyler Reddick
8th – John Hunter Nemechek
9th – Brennan Poole
10th – Ryan Preece
11th – Justin Haley
12th – Austin Dillon
13th – Quin Houff
14th – Alex Bowman
15th – Timmy Hill
16th – Matt Kenseth
17th – Joey Gase
18th – Brad Keselowski
19th – Cody Ware
20th – Kevin Harvick
21st – Matt DiBenedetto
22nd – Chris Buescher
23rd – Martin Truex Jr.
24th – Bubba Wallace
25th – Ryan Blaney
26th – Joey Logano
27th – Kyle Busch
28th – Corey LaJoie
29th – Jimmie Johnson
30th – James Davison
31st – Cole Custer
32nd – Kurt Busch
33rd – Clint Bowyer
34th – Daniel Suarez
35th – Brendan Gaughan
36th – Michael McDowell
37th – Aric Almirola
38th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
39th – Christopher Bell

Here is the updated playoff picture

Rank – Driver: Points (Behind), (Wins/Playoff Points), (+/- cut line)
1st – Denny Hamlin: 3141 (0), (7 WINS/54 PP), (1 WIN)
2nd – Kurt Busch: 3048 (-93), (1 WIN/6 PP), (1 WIN)
3rd – Kevin Harvick: 3121 (-20), (9 WINS/67 PP), (+68)
4th – Chase Elliott: 3097 (-44), (2 WINS/22 PP), (+44)
5th – Brad Keselowski: 3094 (-47), (4 WINS/35 PP), (+41)
6th – Martin Truex Jr.: 3085 (-56), (1 WIN/17 PP), (+32)
7th – Alex Bowman: 3075 (-66), (1 WIN/9 PP), (+22)
8th – Joey Logano: 3074 (-67), (2 WINS/22 PP), (+21)
————ROUND OF 8 CUT LINE————
9th – Kyle Busch: 3053 (-88), (0 WINS/4 PP), (-21)
9th – Austin Dillon: 3053 (-88), (1 WIN/5 PP), (-21)
11th – Clint Bowyer: 3036 (-105), (0 WINS/4 PP), (-38)
12th – Aric Almirola: 3026 (-115), (0 WINS/5 PP), (-48)

Tune in to NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET next Sunday, October 11 for the live broadcast of the third and final race of the round of 12 of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the Bank of America Roval 400 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.