While the likes of Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece and Josh Berry came out in defense of Denny Hamlin and his overtime restart on Sunday at Richmond Raceway, one of the drivers most affected by it said it better be legal this weekend at Martinsville Speedway too.
Logano, who finished second in the race, co-hosts a one-hour segment every Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio where he articulated his feelings over the restart.
“I’ll tell you one thing, if I get black-flagged for doing that next week I’m going to be pissed,” Logano said. “Because why was it okay last week. I don’t think this was even a question. The restart was not even under review until (Martin) Truex said he jumped the start
“Right, like that was it. It wasn’t even a thought in NASCAR’s mind, I don’t think.”
To wit, NASCAR didn’t review the restart until after the race, at which point league senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said it was deemed legal, but then said on Tuesday morning that Hamlin went early and that a similar restart could result in a penalty if it happens earlier in the race.
“Because if there is something, they are very quick to say a restart is under review,” Logano said. “I mean they would say that while they were going down the backstretch, right after they took the green. That’s typically how it goes. And this one, not a word was said until way past the end of the race when we’re doing post-race interviews. And now it’s a hot topic.”
Logano said there was a restart in the middle portion of the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, one that he was in the broadcast booth for, where Aric Almirola appeared to implement all sorts of gamesmanship coming to the green flag and that was officially reviewed.
“There was one under review in the Xfinity Race, right, when I was up in the FOX booth?” Logano said. “With Aric Almirola and who was on the outside of him there? I think maybe it was Chandler (Smith). I don’t remember exactly who it was. But so his defense, Aric’s defense to the roll and him trying to time the restart was to let him get all the way past him and then go. So go late in the box, that was Eric’s defense to that.
“And what that looks like, to everybody, it looks like Aric Almirola brake-checked the field. No he didn’t. He maintained the caution car speed or his speed he was entering the restart zone at and because everyone thought they were going because they were timing it it looks like he brake-checks the field, and they put that under review. There was nothing to review there, in my opinion, and they did review it and they realized nothing there. They let it go.”
Ergo.
“Gosh, if that’s under review, the last restart of the Cup Race should be under review.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.