Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains Chase Elliott’s SMT data posted by Denny Hamlin
Dale Earnhardt Jr. dove into the highly-publicized SMT data posted by Denny Hamlin following his incident with Chase Elliott on the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download.
The SMT data, which Hamlin used as his main point of evidence in proving Elliott wrecked him during the Coca-Cola 600, showed what Elliott’s steering line was at the point of contact. Hamlin tweeted it out to prove his case, and Earnhardt Jr. took his time to go through it to make sure he understood it correct.
“When I first pulled up the tweet from Denny, I was like, ‘Now I’ve got to think and study. I’ve got to figure out what I’m looking at.’ So I’ve got to find the steering line. I’ve got to go to the, I’m looking at this picture on the side, showing the cars. Alright. I don’t know if this tells me a whole lot. But Jeff Gluck, in his tweet, his retweet of it says, ‘Here is the steering input at the moment of contact.’ Right? So it’s basically saying, it’s putting a timestamp on, this is when the No. 9 and the No. 11 are making contact, and the steering on the No. 9 is to the left. If Denny says that graph going higher is to the left, that’s what’s going on,” explained Earnhardt Jr.
“So I’ve not driven this car much at all, much less with any kind of a broken suspension part. But you know, only the drivers, Denny, Chase, NASCAR, could tell us if it did indeed have a toe link broke on the right rear. This is the steering input that you would’ve probably given to the car if it’s broken a toe link on the right front. Here’s how you would steer the car, right? If the car’s trying to go in one direction, you’re trying to keep it from doing that. This is the input you would have. So I would believe that that would argue in Denny’s favor, right? I don’t know in any case, when you have a broke right side, bent suspension that you would steer left. I don’t know. That’s for NASCAR to sort through.”
Alas, the SMT data did help Hamlin’s case, and Elliott has been suspended for this weekend’s race at Gateway, but that didn’t stop Earnhardt Jr. from playing devil’s advocate.
“This is something unique about this car. I remember, the best example of this car becoming un-drivable after contact for me, is Ryan Blaney, Daytona 500, when Austin Cindric and him get together and Austin Cindric wins the race,” added the NASCAR Hall of Famer. “They are going down the front straightaway, headed to the flag stand, they make contact and Blaney is trying to drive his car toward the start-finish line to finish P2. His car is doing everything but that. He has zero control over it at that point, because this was before they reinforced the toe links. They were very brittle. That contact snapped the toe link on the No. 12, and now the car’s driving like a forklift. Alright. So that is Chase’s story, and he’s sticking to it.
“… It didn’t look like it at all. And we’ll never know because after Denny comes off the wall, he destroys the right side of the No. 9 car, which eliminates all the evidence. If the toe link wasn’t bent, it’s bent now.”
Regardless, Chase Elliott will serve his one-race suspension this weekend, and Denny Hamlin is happy NASCAR sided with him on this one, but one has to wonder if this is all over between the two star drivers.