Denny Hamlin concedes he probably got away with a false start of sorts when it came to the final restart on Sunday at Richmond Raceway but also said it was not fundamentally different than most decisive restarts in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Hamlin objectively fired a few feet before reaching the restart zone, technically a violation of the rules, but race control never called an infraction. Regardless, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. raced side-by-side into Turn 1 before the No. 11 team ultimately emerged victorious.
In his justification all week, Hamlin said the decision to get on the throttle where he did was based on the second row lagging back to get a run on him and Truex also trying to advantageously time his own restart.
Without a dog in the fight, that’s what Michael McDowell focused on during the week-long discourse.
“What I can’t understand is why y’all aren’t talking about Larson and Logano,” said McDowell. “They should have been penalized for laying back. Clear as day. They were both a car length back; both of them should have been penalized. There’s no question about that one.”
But Hamlin did jump the restart and race control figuratively swallowed the whistle.
“Yeah, it’s very similar to that,” Hamlin said of the analogy on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. “The difference is, where I went, it made no difference in the outcome. I know that people like to think it changed the result but it didn’t. We were side-by-side in (Turns) 1 and 2. It didn’t change anything but I understand … From my benefit, the biggest positive I had is that TV didn’t show it.
“TV wasn’t even looking at the restart when it happened.”
In fact, the potential of a jumped restart wasn’t even a narrative until well after the race ended when Truex was very adamant that his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate was in violation of the rules. On Saturday, Truex had the same sentiment he had after the race.
“I don’t really understand,” Truex said. “It is a black and white rule. You don’t go until you get in the box so I don’t understand what all the questions are about. You go before it, you should get penalized. It’s clear as mud now.”
Truex said this is a ‘he did or he didn’t type of call’ and NASCAR didn’t make it. With that said, he doesn’t harbor resentment to Hamlin over it even after driving into him under the cool down lap on Sunday.
“It’s water under the bridge,” he said. “It’s a race. It’s over. It’s … I was frustrated. It’s aggravating to lead an entire race, dominate a race and then have it go away that way, because I think that’s like the fifth or sixth time it’s happened to Richmond. So you just get aggravated, and it all piles on in a short amount of time in just 10 or 15 minutes and I clearly lost my cool and did some things I’m probably not proud of, but you move on, you go to next week, and you hope you come out on top and do a better job.”
Hamlin says he probably got away with one, too.
“Yeah, probably, more than likely,” he said. “But again, even if I go in the box, I don’t think it changes anything at all. I explained it on Monday but when I’m looking around at the mirrors and on the side, I kind of go when I feel like its right to go. Obviously, when I look back at it, I wasn’t as close to the box as I thought I was.
“Maybe, but luckily for me, they were on the wrong camera.”
Ryan Preece, Josh Berry and Brad Keselowski came to his defense on Wednesday but Joey Logano still doesn’t like the decision. He certainly didn’t like the insinuation that NASCAR is more likely, to again, swallow the whistle earlier in the race than it is to do it on the final restart.
“Consistency is what you look for and I don’t believe a call should be different end of the race vs. middle of the race,” Logano said. “I also believe there’s more time after the race than during the race in my opinion. I’m not up there in the booth to understand how that goes but I imagine there’s more time after the race before you have to declare a winner, but either way, we’re just looking for consistency.”
Earlier in the week, Logano said he would be ‘pissed’ if he jumps a late restart like that and then gets penalized for it. Hamlin said it would be dumb for anyone to jump a restart like that now because NASCAR is looking closer at them after last week.
Chastain has some reservations about when that first penalty gets called, whenever it gets called.
“The scary part is when do the reactionary calls change,” Chastain said. “When is that a penalty at the end of the race or lap 10 or 30 or 300? Being that first guy who gets called for going the same distance early would be tough to swallow.”
Ultimately, and maybe that will change moving forward, but Hamlin didn’t think NASCAR wanted to decide races in race control.
“Would it have been a worse look? Probably,” he said. “The person who crossed the line first didn’t win. I definitely understand that it’s in the rule book as black and white rule but it’s also something we have taken advantage of in the last billion years.
“Like I said, if you really want to analyze them, over 50 percent jumped early. I caution everyone with that.”
So he also doesn’t want NASCAR using SMT data or loop data to start calling restart penalties.
“Do we really want that,” Hamlin said. “There’s been some viral videos going around about the obvious jumps over the years but more often than not, I’m going to venture to say that 60 or 70 percent have gone before the box so be careful what we wish for.”
Larson wants to see a larger restart zone.
“I think that helps the leader, and you see less games outside the zone,” Larson said. “I think you get more strategy going within the zone, which is fair. But Fontana, everybody behind Logano, tried predicting when he was going to go, and he just waited until the end of the zone, which was legal. And they all crashed and then NASCAR thought it was a zone length issue when it really was just a competitor issue.
“I would just like to see the zone a lot bigger; even bigger than it used to be or was early last year because then I think you get those – I hate to call it games – strategical moves within the zone. I think you’d see less jumping the start if the zone was longer.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.