NASCAR decided to suspend Chase Elliott on Wednesday for his actions in Monday’s rain delayed Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In that race, Elliott appeared to crash Denny Hamlin on Lap 185 in retaliation for a move that Hamlin squeezed Elliott into the outside SAFER barrier exiting Turn 4.

Hamlin felt like Elliott had a temper tantrum and hooked him as a result as Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet hit Hamlin’s right rear quarter panel coming into the dogleg of the 1.5-mile track. That move sent Hamlin’s car head first into the wall.

“He right-rear hooked me down the straightaway,” Hamlin said. “The same thing that happened with Bubba [Wallace] and Kyle [Larson] last year.

“It’s a tantrum and he [Elliott] shouldn’t be racing next week. Right rear hooks are absolutely unacceptable. I don’t care. Exact same. He shouldn’t be racing. It’s a tantrum.”

NASCAR agreed.

They had to. The precedent was set a year ago when they suspended Bubba Wallace, who happens to be Hamlin’s driver for 23XI Racing, for a similar maneuver on Elliott’s teammate, Kyle Larson in Las Vegas.

Wallace was suspended from the following race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for violating Sections 4.3.A and 4.4.C & E of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct laid out in the NASCAR Rule Book. Rule 4.4.C lists “intentionally wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from Competition as a result” as one of five member actions that could result in a penalty.

While Elliott denied crashing Hamlin on purpose, there’s too much data out there to dispel it.

“There’s no explanation that he could possibly give, which he didn’t have a reason for hanging left,” Hamlin said. You know he obviously didn’t want to admit it.

“I pointed out in the data that I tweeted that once he got into the wall, there was nothing wrong with his car. He’s turned the wheel back straight, like he was going down the straightaway, and you can tell by data whether you’ve got toe link damage or not.

“Everyone hits the wall. But he threw a hissy fit and he just hung the left on us in the most dangerous part of the racetrack that you possibly could and it ended my day and his, and in my opinion, he shouldn’t be racing next weekend. Because NASCAR set a precedent last year on this.”

While Elliott wanted to avoid making a statement that could later get him in trouble, there’s too much out there to prove otherwise.

“The 11 ran us up in the fence there, and once you tear the right sides off these things, it’s kind of over,” Elliott said. “Once you hit the wall in these things, you can’t drive them anymore. So unfortunately, not, no, just an unfortunate circumstance.”

Hamlin ran Ross Chastain high in Phoenix and later admitted to doing so. NASCAR heard Hamlin’s podcast and slapped him with a $50k fine and stripped him of 25 points. That’s why Elliott was coy on discussing the crash. However, NASCAR saw enough.

This penalty was also supposed to be stiffer since it was an actual crash to where Hamlin and Chastain’s incident in Phoenix was a more lower speed scrape into the wall.

This while not massively, will have an impact on Elliott making the postseason this year. While he was facing a taller task by the week of making it in on points, he was still making up ground. He’s 81 points out with 12 races remaining in the regular season.

To lose his cool like he did cost him a good result and some much needed points. He finished 34th. Prior to that, he had five straight top 12 finishes since his return and honestly getting better and better by the week. He went from finishing 12th to 11th to 7th to 3rd. Then this.

While it was looking like he was going to have to win to get in anyways, by missing another race, it makes it all that much harder to do so. Plus, with 10 different winners already, there’s a chance the cutline may slide lower and lower and not be 16th place that Elliott is chasing. You have guys like Ross Chastain, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and the RFK Racing duo who’ve not yet won this year.

This will be the seventh race he’s missed this season, six of which for an injury.

This time, it won’t be Josh Berry in the car. That’s because Berry is racing out west in Portland on Saturday. HMS officials chose Corey LaJoie instead.

This is the best opportunity of LaJoie’s career. The journeyman is having a career year with Spire in 2023 as he has a career-best average finish of 19th.

Winless in 214 career starts, LaJoie has eight top 20 finishes this season already including a fourth place effort in Atlanta.

Now, he has a prime opportunity to show the garage what he can do in premiere equipment.

Unfortunately for him, no matter how good he does, there’s no room at the inn for the 31-year-old at HMS in the near future. They have all four drivers signed long term. However, there’s some bigger seats coming available that LaJoie can vie for.

As a result of LaJoie going to HMS, Spire has called up Carson Hocevar to the 7.

Hocevar ran last weeks Xfinity Series race for Spire and impressed.