NASCAR Investigating Driver, Chase Elliott Has No Patience For NBC Camera, Suarez Signs Autograph During Argument
Kyle Larson is out, Chase Elliott said this new NASCAR racing stinks and then shooed the camera away, Ryan Blaney called out dumba** drivers and Cole Custer is under investigation.
Wait, what? Yep. You read that right.
NASCAR is spending its Monday morning at the offices investigating Cole Custer - probably the most boring driver in the garage.
More on that in a minute.
Elsewhere, Daniel Suarez lost power steering and then feeling in his arms, Chase Briscoe is somehow three races away from the making the Final Four, and - oh yeah - Christopher Bell actually won Sunday at the Charlotte Roval.
Four tires, a splash of fuel and a slight wedge adjustment ... Monday Morning Pit-Stop is rolling!
Christopher Bell won at Charlotte and advanced to the Round of 8 NASCAR playoffs. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Christopher Bell punches Round of 8 ticket
Reckon we should start with the end, right?
Bell won the race after a late pit call put him on four fresh tires, punching his ticket to the penultimate round of the playoffs.
The Joe Gibbs driver pulled away by a pretty hefty margin, but there was, of course, chaos everywhere else.
For starters, Bell really only had a chance to win because everybody wrecked each other on a late restart. And by everybody, I mean EVERYBODY.
AJ Allmendinger got into Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick moved 'Dinger for the lead, Tyler Reddick then for some reason wrecked Elliott, Bell ultimately took over second and Ty Dillon brought out the caution when he killed a turtle.
Relax, PETA. He didn't really kill a turtle!
Anyway, that caution brought out the red flag, allowing everyone to take a deep breath and come back for a nice, tame final couple laps.
Just kidding!
Cole Custer move was perfectly fine, NASCAR
So Bell eventually restarted and drove off with the win - Toyota's first on a road course this year, by the way - but the real drama was a few miles behind him.
Chase Briscoe, needing to pass multiple cars on the final lap to catch Kyle Larson in the points, sent his No. 14 Ford deeeeeeeeep into the corner and slid up in front of just about everyone.
Good news for Briscoe, though ... his teammate was right there to keep the herd behind him!
Cole Custer, as Dale Jr. said, blocked everyone, and allowed his teammate to ultimately pull away and advance to the Round of 8.
Inexplicably, the move also eliminated our defending champ - Kyle Larson - from the postseason.
Quick - who had Chase Briscoe outlasting Kyle Larson in the NASCAR playoffs this year?
Liars!
"Just extremely mad at myself because I let the team down a number of times this year and let them down in a big way today," Larson said. "We will keep fighting and we will come back stronger. I will definitely come back stronger, smarter and make better moves out there. Just mad at myself. Bummer."
NASCAR later said they were investigating the incident on the final lap involving Custer, reviewing data, video and radio transmissions. Any penalty, however, would NOT affect the Round of 8 field.
My two cents (and that's why we're here, right?!): good luck with that. He threw a giant block on the final lap of a road race. Custer ain't the first to do it and certainly won't be the last.
Was the racing good at Charlotte? Don't ask Chase Elliott. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Chase Elliott: (Racing) is 'gonna get worse'
Instead of reviewing the film from Sunday's final lap, perhaps the sport should take a look at how to improve the quality of racing on the track?
That's certainly what the always-chipper Chase Elliott would prefer!
I don't know when Chase turned into Kyle Busch, but I am HERE for it. Maybe this is the new Chase Elliott, or just the playoff Chase Elliott? Either way, the regular season champ is LOCKED in for these final four races ... even though he apparently doesn't have much confidence in any of them.
"We sucked at Vegas in the spring," doesn't exactly make you wanna run through a brick wall for the No. 9 team.
Regardless, barring absolute disaster, it's pretty clear that Elliott's most likely advancing to the championship race.
He has the points-lead, somehow avoided going head-to-head with Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch or Kevin Harvick, and now must finish ahead of guys like Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell.
I think he'll be OK.
Ryan Blaney (left) and Joey Logano both advanced to the Round of 8. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Ryan Blaney calls out dumba** non-playoff drivers
Another driver who I think joins Chase in the Final Four is Ryan Blaney, who also advanced by the skin of his teeth Sunday.
It wasn't exactly a smooth ride for Young Ryan, though.
I believe that gives us four weeks in a row with somebody calling someone else a dumba**. We're one week away from BINGO!
Power steering is really important in NASCAR
Finally, on our way out, here's the quote of the day from Daniel Suarez, who was eliminated from the playoffs after losing power steering early in Sunday's race.
Don't know if you guys know this, but power steering is pretty helpful in this sport - especially at a road course with a billion turns.
Turns out, it's really, really hard to turn an automobile without it!
Daniel Suarez signs autograph during argument
Finally, on our way out, Part 2 ...
Sticking with Suarez, don't tell me he ain't a good guy.
After fighting his car for three hours, getting eliminated from the playoffs, and getting in a heated argument with Corey LaJoie, NBC captured video of Suarez signing autographs ...
... during the argument!
Bold move from the kid just risking it all for a a John Hancock, but shooters shoot, baby!
On a totally unrelated note, I probably wouldn't try that move with Chase Elliott any time soon.
On to Vegas!