Gonna go ahead and get this out of the way: Obviously, being arrested for something doesn’t mean you’re guilty. Innocent until proven guilty, right?
But man, this doesn’t look good.
Eddie D’Hondt, spotter for Chase Elliott in the NASCAR Cup Series, has been suspended indefinitely by both NASCAR and his team, Hendrick Motorsports, after it came out that he was arrested earlier this month and charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery of an unborn child and assault on a female.
If you’re a NASCAR fan, the name Eddie D’Hondt probably sounds familiar. D’Hondt has been the spotter for several big-name drivers over the years, including Jeff Gordon, Elliott Sadler, and Chase’s dad Bill Elliott.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox Sports, the arrest stems from an incident in September 2020 with an employee of a jet ski rental company.
According to the employee, D’Hondt was upset because he wanted more time or a refund on his rental, when he made “full body contact” with the employee and yelled in her face, pushing the employee back multiple times with his body, hit her arm away, and swung a fist at the employee.
D’Hondt was issued a summons at the time for assault on the female, and then was arrested on May 12 of this year for the charge of battery on an unborn child.
According to an affidavit filed by D’Hondt’s wife, however, the jet ski rental employee “fully extended her arm into my husband’s face so quickly that I thought she was about to hit him, and swung her hand out towards his face.
My husband took his open hand and moved (her) hand out of his face.”
D’Hondt has also filed a motion with the court asking for surveillance video at the incident, claiming that the employee told him at the time that there were cameras all over the place.
After learning of the arrest, Hendrick Motorsports announced that D’Hondt was being indefinitely suspended, with a replacement spotter for Elliott to be named later.
And NASCAR soon followed suit, suspending D’Hondt not only for the arrest, but for failing to notify NASCAR within 72-hours of the arrest as required by the sport’s rulebook.
D’Hondt has continued to spot for Elliott for the past two races since the arrest, first at Dover where Hendrick Motorsports cars swept the top four spots and again at this weekend’s rain-soaked race at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas – a race that was won by Chase Elliott.
For its part, Hendrick Motorsports claims that it was not aware of the arrest until this morning.
Man, this is just a shitty situation for everybody involved, and it doesn’t really look great on anybody’s part that it took so long for this to come to light.
But if the allegations are true, D’Hondt’s time in NASCAR is probably over – as it should be.
