Brad Keselowski appreciates Elton Sawyer’s comments on missing Denny Hamlin’s jumped restart at Richmond

Brad Keselowski said Tuesday he appreciates NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer’s comments on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio earlier in the day, in which he admitted that Denny Hamlin rolled early on the final restart during this past Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.

“Sometimes things slip through the cracks,” Keselowski said, via Toby Christie of Racing America.

Hamlin, aided by a fast pit stop ahead of overtime, went from P3 to P1 for the final restart. He held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Kyle Larson to pick up his 53rd-career victory and second of the season.

Sawyer described the restart as a “bang-bang call.”

“It’s a bang-bang call,” Sawyer said. “And as I had the opportunity to look Sunday night as well as multiple times yesterday — first and foremost, the 11 [Hamlin] is the control vehicle. They have earned the right to be in that position. They’ve won the battle off pit road and put themselves in a position to be able to control the restart. And as I looked at it yesterday, again multiple times, there’s no doubt he rolled early.”

Elton Sawyer: ‘No doubt’ Denny Hamlin rolled early on final restart at Richmond

Sawyer, who said after the race Sunday that NASCAR reviewed it and deemed it a good restart, added that the ruling could have been different if it happened at a different point in the race.

“Again, it’s a bang-bang call at the end of the race. We’re a live sporting event [and] we don’t have luxury of a timeout and go to the sideline and review it and make that call. If this happens at Lap 10 or 50 or 300, the call could have been different. If I’m a competitor, I wouldn’t be playing that game every week. Sometimes you get the call that goes in your favor.”

Hamlin, speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast on Monday, conceded that he “went pretty early in the zone.”

“I went pretty early in the zone,” Hamlin said. “… It’s a restart zone. Certainly, if you fire in a zone that they know you’re going to fire in, let’s not even say zone — in a spot — if they know you’re going to fire in a spot, they can actually fire before you. I concede that on TV, it looks worse than what it felt like in the car. Now, a lot of the reason of that is that when I’m restarting the race, I’m not looking at the flagman, I’m not looking at my dash, I’m not looking at anything. All I’m looking at is my mirror and my side peripheral.”