Controversy erupted again as Denny Hamlin secured his second win of the 2024 season. This time at the expense of JGR teammate and 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr, as a late-race overtime restart, saw Hamlin “jump” ahead and deny a 1-2 sweep for the #19 and Coach Gibbs’ gloried organization.

Many cried foul play, considering the “controversial” incident that caused the caution in the first place. Nevertheless, Richmond’s newest champ admitted to having a hand in the sketchy restart, although in a strictly “competitive capacity”.

Denny Hamlin Admits Early Start But Blames In-Car Perspective

On lap 398 of the 400-lap oval race, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace spun out Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson bringing out the yellow. The #11 car was leading the race before the restart, trailed by MTJ’s #19 and Joey Logano’s #22 Ford. As the green waved in overtime, Hamlin seemed to rush “a few feet ahead,” and the race finished under confusing conditions with an additional seven laps.

Amidst all the confusion, Denny Hamlin added his 53rd Cup Series victory to his impressive resume. After the race, however, viewers were eager to know about Hamlin’s thoughts on the regular post-race release of Actions Detrimental. It is safe to say that he did not disappoint when he announced to the NASCAR world. “I went pretty early in the zone,” followed by a long pause.

Denny had a rhetorical question to pose: “It’s a zone. It’s a restart zone. Anyone know what the definition of zone is?” His co-host, Jared Allen, intervened, explaining to the listeners, “Josh Wise does. He had a couple of good tweets.” As Hamlin explained, Josh Wise is a trainer for Chevrolet’s development program as well as a decade-long NASCAR veteran. Wise was among the select few to offer an opinion on the controversial restart at Richmond. The series of tweets by Wise read, 

“NASCAR has always allowed flexibility on the restart box entry. There would be dozens of wins overturned if they had a hard line in this… Late race GWC- it’s well known, especially in the Cup Series. Fire early… ” The context was laid as Denny Hamlin offered an apt explanation from his end for all the recent whispers. 

“If you fire in a zone that they know you’re going to fire in, they can fire before you. On TV, it will not look like they did. I concede that on TV it looks worse than what it felt like in the car. The reason for 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 the side peripheral.” 

The #11 driver then explained how the #22 and #19 were “creeping forward,” while detailing his own refusal to “give up the advantage of being the leader.” Hamlin continued how the constant pressure forced him to “take off,” as he admitted in his own words, “I concede that it’s a few feet early. But, again, I don’t think it’s ever been a hard line like Josh is talking about. Many late restarts have been fired really early because, if you wait until you get to the zone, you’ve lost all your advantage to the cars that are around you…”

Podcast Reveals All “Good,” But #19 Feels Cheated

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Denny Hamlin started the race in P11, whereas his affected teammate Martin Truex Jr started out in P7. MTJ took the lead from Kyle Larson for the majority of the race. HMS’ pole-winner and Stage 1 victor joined forces with the 43-year-old Stage 2 victor to lead around 94% of the 407-lap spectacle. Analyzing the contrasting race dynamics reveals the desperation of the #11 team. Moreover, Hamlin led 17 laps only under the lights at Richmond.

Nevertheless, The rarely frustrated MTJ spoke openly to FS1, revealing his disappointment. He claimed similar situations where his advances were botched “a few times over the years,” although he stopped short of directly calling out Hamlin. The #19 did not seem to “appreciate his teammate racing him like that” either, as he told Noah Lewis of TSJSports1 after the race. However, recent disclosures on Hamlin’s podcast reveal that the teammates are now “all good,” as JGR #11 admitted that #19 looked like he “deserved to win the race.”

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