Elliott, who went on to win and reach the Championship 4, was initially penalized for the early jump; moments later, NASCAR rescinded the call, saying the crew member reestablished position behind the wall in time.
A penalty would have dropped Elliott from the top five in the final stage of the Xfinity 500 to below 20th place. It might have kept him from the clutch win that sent him to Phoenix with a chance at a title.
Take a look at the close call:
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The contributed to Elliott losing a couple of spots on the race off pit road, but a violation would have made things much worse.
He fought off Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney for the victory.
This isn’t the first time NASCAR has given Elliott the benefit of the doubt this postseason. A couple of weeks ago, it failed to black flag him for radio malfunction before acknowledging later that week it should have brought him off the track to address the situation.
