By his own admission, Denny Hamlin needed to find some extra speed on pit road to go from third to first before the final restart but despite some fan reactions that expressed conviction that the Joe Gibbs No. 11 warranted a speeding penalty, NASCAR says ‘no.’
Hamlin conceded on Sunday that he was going to have to push the speed limit in every segment down pit road.
“I knew coming in third, I was going to have to have my best roll (speed) of the day,” Hamlin said. “My fastest speed coming into the box. I needed to put it perfectly on the sign so they didn’t have to adjust.
“I needed to stack tenths and tenths and tenths on my side of the job. Once I got into the pit stall and they dropped the right side, I knew ‘oh boy, this is going to be a heater.’
“The two-car length lead (Ryan Blaney) had on us, I don’t know what that equates to, it’s probably a second of total time (and) I have to make up some. When you stack all that together, you end up going from third to first.”
The 9.42 second stop, best on pit road amongst all crews, then sealed the deal.
Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday morning, Cup Series managing director Brad Moran confirmed Hamlin had green lights across the board and no reds to signify speeding in any loop.
“Each pit road is obviously a different length and a different shape,” Moran said. “There are timing loops that are put around, 8-to-13 loops depending on what track it is and it’s all electronically timed. If you speed through a section, it gives you a five mile an hour buffer and if you’re 5.01 over, you’re speeding. You can manipulate your speed through those sections but it’s really clear, a black and white rule and Denny did not speed through that pit stop.”
Hamlin, infamously, is historically one of the most speeding happy drivers in the sport but has worked over the past decade to find a figurative sweet spot and nailed it on Sunday.
