Elliott Declared Winner at Pocono after Hamlin, Busch Disqualified

Denny Hamlin had the ultimate roller coaster day at Pocono. After starting on pole, the driver of the No. 11 Camry brushed the Turn 2 wall on the opening lap. He then spun by himself on Lap 42 when he got too low in the same turn. After climbing his way back to the front of the field, he extracted some revenge on Ross Chastain with 18 laps to go while they were battling for the lead. Chastain crashed and Hamlin went on to win the race. And then he didn’t.

In a bizarre twist, Chase Elliott was declared the winner of today's race. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was handed the victory after Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch were disqualified following post-race inspection. Hamlin had initially won for a record-breaking seventh time at the Tricky Triangle, but he remains tied with Jeff Gordon at the top of Pocono's all-time wins list.

Busch was stripped of his runner-up finish, in what appeared to be a banner day for the Gibbs organization. The driver of the No. 18 Camry led a race-high 63 laps today, and won Stage 2 of the race. It was a great morale boost for the team as they continue to try to find a solution to his contract for next season, but that has now gone out the window.

By virtue of the rules, Elliott now has four wins this season. He has won three of the last five races, and finished 2nd in the other two. His hot streak is something he hopes will continue next weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Speaking before the disqualifications were announced, Elliott said he was pleased with how the day went. "Definitely a bit of a battle for our NAPA team today. I'm pretty happy with third after that. I didn't think we were all that good through the mid-portion of the race and I was struggling in traffic trying to get back up through there. We had some restarts go our way there towards the end and was able to get some spots back, which was nice. It was good to get a top-five, but certainly could be a little better."

The second-generation driver was asked about what he learned at the Tricky Triangle today. "I don't know that I learned much of anything today, but just got fortunate there with the way the restarts and stuff went. I think we have room for improvement. We'll go onto next week, try to build and be a little bit better at Indy." Chase finished 4th on the IMS road course last year.

The victory would have been the third of the season for Hamlin, and the 49th of his career. That would have tied him with Tony Stewart on the all-time wins list. This would have been the 199th victory for Gibbs, but that too will have to wait. The good news is that both Hamlin and Busch are already locked into the playoffs.

The penalties can be appealed and both Toyotas were sent to NASCAR’s research and development center in North Carolina.

“There was some issues discovered that affect aero in the vehicle,” NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran 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 disqualification.”

"It’s unfortunate. We don’t want to be here talking about this," Moran said. "We just saw a great race. The last thing we want to do is meet here afterward and talk about this problem, but the teams and the owners and everybody was well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some pretty tight tolerances, and there are some areas all the teams are well aware that we cannot be going down the path we had in the past with the other cars. Everyone has to abide by the new rules."

This is the first time a Cup race winner has been disqualified since NASCAR implemented the new post-race inspection rules in 2019.

By virtue of the disqualifications, Tyler Reddick earned another runner-up finish today for Richard Childress Racing. Daniel Suarez ended up finishing in 3rd while last week's winner Christopher Bell came home in 4th. Kyle Larson won Stage 1 of the race and collected another top-five finish today.

Michael McDowell had an impressive run today from 25th to 6th as the only Ford to finish inside the top 12. Martin Truex Jr kept his consistent season going with a 7th place finish as he continues his pursuit of a Playoff spot. Bubba Wallace finished 8th to lead the charge for 23XI Racing. He was without his veteran teammate Kurt Busch, who missed the race after suffering concussion-like symptoms after his crash in qualifying yesterday.

Ty Gibbs filled in for Busch in the No. 45 Toyota, and the young phenom did a marvelous job in his Cup debut. Gibbs kept his car clean and delivered a respectable 16th place finish for the team.

“First of all, I want to say thank you to God for giving me this opportunity," the 19-year old said. "Thank you to Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, everybody at 23XI. The most important thing right now is Kurt’s health and hopefully he can get back in this seat. He drives way better than me so he deserves this. He’s been awesome. He’s helped me out so much so I want to say thank you to him.”

"I’m very thankful just to come into this whole thing,” Gibbs continued. “I did not expect it at all. It means a lot. I had a great time and, Michael if you’re watching, I want to say thank you. I had a great time, and I learned a lot.”

Shortly after the race ended, Hamlin touched on his incident with Chastain. “We drove in deep and he drove in deep, and I’m not even sure if we made contact, maybe we did. He ended up running out of racetrack. He knew I was going to race him hard. What else do you want me to do after the wrecks that I’ve had? That’s what we did today.”

“I mean, what did you want me to do? What did you expect me to do? We got position on him, and he just ran out of race track,” he said. “And it’s not just that. We’ve been wrecked four times, twice while leading in the last 10 months and I’m at the end of it.”

Chastain knew that payback was coming at some point, and today just happened to be the day. “I think we all knew what was owed to me, and today he cashed that in,” he admitted. “That’s something that’s been coming to me for a few months now. I’m proud of the effort by TrackHouse. To keep bringing fast cars like that is a testament to GM and Chevrolet. It was a really fast one and we’ll be back at Indy.”

Ross wasn't ready to say whether or not he and Hamlin are now even. “I’ve been owed that and probably some more for a few months now. I had that one coming, and if I would have raced smarter two months ago, I probably would have had plenty of room off Turn 1. I’ve realized that for the last month or two, and it’s just too late for that, so I’ll go onto Indy.”

It was a rough day for Team Penske, as they were unable to fight for the win. Joey Logano was never able to get going and finished 20th, which was the team's best result. Austin Cindric had an issue with his rear suspension early in the race and fell to a 31st place finish. Ryan Blaney ran well but had multiple issues on track, and the last accident ended his day in 33rd position.

Blaney will have a better shot at victory in the next race, where he finished runner-up last year.

Only five races remain in the regular season. Teams and drivers will now head to the hallowed grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a doubleheader with the IndyCar Series on the IMS road course. Coverage for Sunday's Verizon 200 at the Brickyard begins at 2:30 ET on NBC.