Who… should you be talking about after the race?
After leading twice for 10 laps initially, a stroke of racing luck ended up putting Denny Hamlin in position to take full advantage on Easter night (March 31) at Richmond Raceway.
When Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace tossed the race into overtime, Hamlin’s No. 11 crew pulled off a sub-9-second pit stop, putting Hamlin on the front row for the overtime restart. Hamlin got the edge he needed at the green flag, pulling away for the win at his home track.
The hard luck award of the night went to Martin Truex Jr. If there was a car that had the field covered, it was that of Truex. He even rallied back after pit stops with more than 50 laps to go after briefly dropping behind Larson. Sure, Truex was slowed by lapped traffic in the final stage, but it appeared that he had enough cushion to beat out Hamlin and Joey Logano for the win … until the late caution.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
Truex made the allegation on his radio Sunday night. He was not done talking about it on camera either. So what was it? That Hamlin jumped the final restart on the way to his win.
NASCAR, for its part, said that the restart was clean.
Should NASCAR take more time to review restarts? Sure, if you want annoying game stoppages for replays like you see in stick-and-ball sports.
In the end, Sunday night was a judgment call made by humans, and unless you want robots calling races, it’s part of the balance between on-track calls made by those in a race control tower.
Where… did the other key players wind up?
Polesitter and defending race winner Larson rallied back after late contact with Bubba Wallace to finish third. Wallace, meanwhile, faded back to 13th after a bad final pit stop.
Despite leading over half the race, the overtime restart saw Truex fade to finish a…
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