NASCAR Race: Defending Champion Among Drivers Penalized After Failing Tech

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues on Sunday with the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race provides defending champion Chase Elliott with another opportunity to win a race, but he will have to make up considerable ground. He was one of three drivers penalized ahead of the green flag.

NASCAR announced before the race that Elliott's No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro had failed tech two separate times. He had to move to the rear of the field. Timmy Hill, the No. 66 Toyota Camry driver, also dropped back after failing tech three times. NASCAR suspended Hill's crew chief after the third failure. Quin Houff, the No. 00 Chevrolet Camaro driver, joined them at the rear of the field after his team made unapproved adjustments.

NEWS: The Nos. 9 and 66 will drop to the rear at @amsupdates for multiple inspection failures.

The No. 00 will drop to the rear for unapproved adjustments. pic.twitter.com/QvZHVqtAFv

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 21, 2021

Elliott was set to start the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 in the fifth position, joining teammate Kyle Larson on the third row. This penalty marked the second time in two weeks that Elliott moved to the rear of the field. However, he told the Fox Sports team that he had 500 miles to "figure it out" and win his first race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Heading into Sunday's race, Elliott sits in sixth place in the points standings with 179. He has not won a race yet after securing the championship last November, but he has secured two top-five finishes. His season started with a second-place finish during the wreck-filled Daytona 500. Elliott then had three straight races outside of the top 10, but he finished the Instacart 500 in fifth place while Martin Truex Jr. won.

Out of the four HMS drivers, two have already secured their spots in the playoffs. William Byron drove the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro to Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway, notching his first win of the season in only the third race. Larson joined him one week later with a victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell won races to start the season, taking the checkered flags at Daytona International Speedway and the Daytona Road Course, respectively. However, no driver has more points than Denny Hamlin. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry holds 236 points after five races.