Sunday’s (March 31) Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway was controversial for more than one reason, but the big focus has centered on Denny Hamlin‘s controversial restart that propelled him to his 53rd NASCAR Cup Series win and his fifth at Richmond.
Martin Truex Jr., who led 228 laps and restarted on the outside of Hamlin after losing the lead on pit road, went immediately on the radio after the race to say that Hamlin jumped the restart, and he said the same when interviewed on pit road after the race.
Hamlin’s questionable restart wasn’t even on the broadcast’s radar until Truex brought it up, because this was the (lack of) view that everyone saw of the front two cars on TV.
FOX ultimately showed a replay of the restart below.
You be the judge.
To me, Hamlin appeared to step on the gas about 20 feet before reaching the restart line. It was close, but it was clear enough that he jumped to a sizable gap by the time his car reached the line.
The onboard camera from Hamlin’s No. 11 car (the video from Ryan Pistana), also shows the jump, as Hamlin audibly stepped on the gas pedal before reaching the white line and red wall marker (the beginning of the restart zone) at 0:06.
On his podcast, Hamlin said that he went “pretty early in the zone,” and he explained that he was trying to watch Truex on his outside and the No. 22 car of Joey Logano behind him to time the perfect launch for the restart. He also conceded that it looked worse on TV than it felt behind the wheel.
But what he said at the end of the clip should raise some eyebrows.
“All I’m doing is looking mirror side,” Hamlin said. “When I see [Truex] starting to creep, I’m like, ‘I take off.’ So I don’t see where I’m at in the zone, and so I can concede, definitely, that it is a few feet early.”
Did Hamlin just admit to jumping before the zone, knowing that the result can no longer be overturned? If so, that might explain the April Fool’s Day joke he posted about the situation.
As for NASCAR race control’s response to the situation, Elton Sawyer — NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition — said that NASCAR…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …