Did Bubba Wallace deserve his $50k penalty for expressing his post-race frustrations against Alex Bowman in Chicago? That question has sent the collective NASCAR community into a frenzy leading up to the Pocono race this Sunday. After all, a similar incident involving Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez went unpunished by NASCAR in their weekly post-race reviews.

From Kevin Harvick to Dale Earnhardt Jr, many icons decided to weigh in on this particular issue. But the latter made some momentary headlines when he warned Chase on the latest episode of his podcast to not mess with Daniel Suarez.

As per Junior, the #99 driver has a mean streak which could take a heavy toll on the #9’s advances with at least 6 battles left to contest in the Regular Season. However, speaking to our EssentiallySports crew in an exclusive interview ahead of Saturday’s qualifying, Elliott cleared out any allegations of simmering tensions between him & the driver that Dale Jr thinks he should be wary of. 

Chase Elliott regards Daniel Suarez dust-up in Chicago as barely “a big deal”

After NASCAR announced halfway through the race that we would have the season’s first timed finish at Chicago due to the weather, everybody started scrambling on the 12 turns of its wet surface. Elliott & Suarez were no different. On the final lap, these two were caught racing hard and not-so-fair, fighting for a potential top-10 placement.

Elliott pushed Daniel Suarez on the second-last turn, resulting in some flaring tensions and a payback bump by Suarez on the #9 car’s bumper. This caused the #9 to spin out and lose integral track position as it finished P21. The race ended with Suarez taking advantage of that little mishap, as he placed ten spots ahead of his rival in P11. Elliott was then found bumping and brake-checking Suarez on the cooldown lap, understandably agitated by the former’s actions earlier in the race.

He also confronted Suarez, but with only a few words exchanged, everything appeared normal between the two future playoff contenders. Although this incident can very naturally be classified as another case of drivers succumbing to the emotions of the race, Dale Jr saw a sinister outlier in Suarez’s actions toward Elliott.

Junior noted on his podcast this past week: “If you bump into that guy (Daniel) or mess with him. He has this reputation that he’s coming back. He’s going to get you back. You’re not going to get away with that…” Safe to say, Suarez held true to these words when he retaliated against Elliott. He himself had admitted to the media after his race, “He (Elliott) pushed me a little bit and then I pushed him with all my intention and I ended up hitting him pretty good on the very last corner. My bad on that.” 

Regardless, this week at Pocono, Elliott claimed that those frustrations that stemmed last week may very well be in the rearview for both drivers. When NASCAR Journalist Bharat Aggarwal from EssentiallySports asked Elliott at Pocono what he had to say about Dale Jr’s opinions on being wary of Daniel Suarez, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Champion said, “Nothing, Daniel and I are good. We talked about it after the race. It really wasn’t a big deal.”

Dale Jr’s concerns are understandable. Daniel Saurez has had a history of wanting that last laugh after a grudge match. His pit road brawl with Michael McDowell has been the biggest example of that notion till now. Even more ironically, last year at COTA, Suarez was fined $50k for hitting Alex Bowman’s car on pit road after the Hendrick driver spun him into Martin Truex Jr and out of a potential top 5 spot.

Moreover, Elliott & Suarez will both be heading to the playoffs this season. That could open another storyline late in the post-season, considering either can go past the initial rounds to battle for the only cause that matters – the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Elliott also had some positives to draw for the Chevys, focusing on the challenge of the moment at the Tricky Triangle this Sunday. Answering another question in his exclusive interview with EssentiallySports, Elliott detailed his Cup practice preparations, stating, “Just getting the balance right individually. And I think if we can do that we can give ourselves a chance.”

On the other hand, if you take a closer look at his predicament on the top of the regular season standings, you’ll see another threat that Chase Elliott must be wary of standing right next to him inside the Hendrick garage.

Questions raised on NASCAR’s decision-making policies yet again

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Apart from breaking a commendable top-20 streak spanning 19 races this season, Elliott recently lost his lead at the top of the points table to Kyle Larson. Before Pocono gets ready to give fans another thriller, the #5 driver stands 11 points clear of his #9 stablemate, aiming to win the 2024 Regular Season championship. These pressures must have played on Elliott’s mind before racing Suarez as hard as he could, hoping to make the spots he needs to catch up to his familiar rival. Besides, with all Hendrick Motorsports drivers now essentially locked into the playoffs, the spotlight on Elliott will only be brighter than ever.

As for Suarez, he had a few grievances to bring up against NASCAR’s controversial decision-making policies to Kelly Crandall of RACER.com. When a portion of the NASCAR audience demanded answers on Elliot not facing the same penalty as Bubba Wallace for a similar incident under caution, the sport’s governing body suggested that the two incidents differed.

According to NASCAR, Bowman wasn’t paying attention and had his hands off his #48’s wheel, while Suarez was coherently attentive to Elliott’s frustrations.

Suarez sympathized with Bubba as he told Crandall, “Just because I was paying attention and didn’t get hit, he’s not getting a fine? That’s a little bit tricky. I think that’s a very big penalty to pay $50,000 for hitting somebody.” 

He doesn’t think Chase Elliott deserves a fine either but agreed that it’s too big a fine to place on Bubba Wallace for not that big of an incident. Nevertheless, he asked for more consistency from NASCAR in making these often-critical decisions, as we prepare for another blinder in the heart of the Pocono mountains this Sunday.