A minor altercation between him and Daniel Suarez before the weekend in Chicago resulted in a hefty $50,000 fine for Bubba Wallace, who crashed into Alex Bowman’s door during the cool-down lap after the race.
Chase Elliott was relieved to see that his name was no longer on the penalty list. After a few accidental collisions on the track, Elliott could have avoided a caution since neither of them intentionally caused any hard contact. But the driver of the No. 9 car was not particularly worried. “To be honest, I didn’t think much about it because we almost didn’t hit each other,” Elliott said, as reported by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “At most that was our only contact.
I haven’t looked into the Bubba situation in detail, but I think my view is very different from his. Wallace hit Bowman with the car door as he was wiping his forehead during the cool-down lap.
Elliott, again, didn’t seem to believe Wallace had done enough to justify the $50,000 fine NASCAR imposed on Wallace. “In my opinion, he shouldn’t have been punished. “I get it,” Chase Elliott said, “but some of the material is really getting lost in the weeds. It was unfortunate given the circumstances and that Alex won the race, but nobody got hurt. I didn’t think it was a big deal.
As far as the personal dispute with Suarez goes, neither driver seemed to be in bad shape.” Suarez questioned NASCAR’s inconsistent application of the rules of conduct, but still believed Elliott should not have been punished for the incident. The two were victims of a crowded field and rainy weather.
This left Elliott frustrated with the delayed communication, but not enough to affect Elliott’s attempt at revenge. Chase Elliott said: “He and I talked after the race, and we could tell it was definitely difficult conditions. He had a really hard time getting the last rain tires on, which ruined his whole day.” In the end, I think it’s my own fault, not anyone else’s.
It made things difficult for us. It’s unfortunate that I lost some positions on the last lap. To be honest, I don’t think he was going to pass me. I expected him to jump off, but he didn’t. Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 car almost passed us and I got close to him in the previous corner. So we talked about everything and I think we understood each other, so it all worked out.
