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

“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.”

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, 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.”

Denny Hamlin concedes he left a ‘few feet early’ on race-winning restart at Richmond

Logano sat P3 for the restart. Hamlin said Logano “dictated the restart” since he was laying back coming out of Turn 4. Hamlin didn’t want to give up his leader advantage and took off as a result.

“So, all I’m doing is trying to time what speed is the outside car going and then I’m looking in the mirror to see OK, how close is the car behind me? And clearly, Joey is laying back. And if we really want to get into technicalities, you should not be laying back,” Hamlin said. “But he laid back enough to where I could see him start to creep towards me. At that point, I’m thinking in my head [that] I’m not going to let him roll to me and then as soon as the gap closes, take off. Because then he’s got an advantage. He’s going to be pushing me, he’s going to pull out of line. He dictated the restart, not me.

“And the same with the 19. I saw him creeping forward and just understand that every mile per hour that you start quicker, you’re that same mile per hour faster all the way until we lift. So, all the way down the front straightaway, you’ve got that one mile per hour advantage. So, I don’t want to give up the advantage of being the leader. At that point, I see the restart zone. I’m coming off of Turn 4 and all I’m doing is looking mirror side. When I see him starting to creep, I take off. So, I don’t see where I’m at in the zone. And so, I concede definitely that it is a few feet early.”