NASCAR: Chase Elliott penalties could have major implications

Chase Elliott has now lost 72 points due to penalties over the last seven NASCAR Cup Series races, including 35 in the last two.

Before his second place finish in this past Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was hit with yet another pre-race penalty.

This one was arguably his biggest, as it not only sent him to the rear of the field and led to an ejection of crew chief Alan Gustafson, but it cost him 10 points in the driver standings.

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While this was the first time Elliott had been penalized points-wise before a race this season, it was not the first time that he had been stripped of points as a result of an infraction.

But without the penalties, he would be sitting in a comfortable third with 821 points — 72 more than he actually has.

The current third place driver, teammate William Byron, has 786 points. Elliott would be 35 points ahead of him instead of 37 points behind.

The regular season championship would still be pretty much out of the question for Elliott, as teammate Kyle Larson and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin are tied for the lead with 917 points each (94 points ahead of 821).

But this is still a massive difference for Elliott, considering the fact that additional playoff points are awarded to drivers based on where they finish the regular season in the point standings. The third place finisher is awarded eight while the sixth place finisher is awarded only five.

Here’s a full list:

1st – 15
2nd – 10
3rd – 8
4th – 7
5th – 6
6th – 5
7th – 4
8th – 3
9th – 2
10th – 1
11th or lower – 0

In Elliott’s case, it’s really a four-point difference in playoff points, not just a three-point difference, right now because of the fact that he was stripped of the playoff point he earned by winning a stage at Nashville Superspeedway thanks to the disqualification, a disqualification that ultimately cost him 37 of the 72 points he has lost over the last seven races.

And depending on how many points separate him from each of his competitors in the standings by the time the regular season concludes, it could end up being an even bigger difference in playoff points.

This is certainly a troubling trend for the #9 team as the four-round, 10-race playoffs approach, as they continue to lose valuable points — and playoff points — due to technicalities.

However, they proved in last year’s Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway that starting at the rear is not as big of a disadvantage as it may seem, as Elliott drove from the back to the front and led the most laps at Phoenix Raceway to win the title.

Points penalties may complicate matters, but the win-and-in nature of each individual round of the playoffs is something else on which Elliott capitalized last year, winning the round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway just to get into the Championship 4.

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Elliott has scored four top two finishes, including two victories, in five road course races so far this season, and the NASCAR Cup Series is set to visit a new road course this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Elliott is two for two in the new road course races this season (three for three going back to last year), and he will look to add to that streak on Sunday, August 15 in the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, which is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET. Be sure to sign up for a free trial of FuboTV if you haven’t already.

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