It can now be written on a billboard that, despite leading the race for over 200 laps, Martin Truex Jr could not win the Richmond race. Instead, it was his teammate Denny Hamlin who won the race with some final restart shenanigans that sparked a whole lot of chit-chat. Was Hamlin too quick on the draw at that restart? Well, NASCAR veteran and former Hendrick Motorsports employee Steve Letarte has weighed in with his two cents on why he believes Hamlin was all clear.

Steve Letarte brings in the topic of momentum between Denny Hamlin and MTJ to clear #11

Martin Truex Jr and everyone else around NASCAR, including Denny Hamlin himself, said that #11 jumped the restart. Just a day ago, he even received a stern warning from the VP of NASCAR for exploiting the blind spot of NASCAR, but now an experienced NASCAR analyst, after watching the whole scene back and forth, finally acquits Denny Hamlin of the accusation. While Hamlin was accused of gaining that speed before his car reached the restart zone, apparently Steve Letarte and Todd Gordon claimed that wasn’t the case.

Letarte said, “In my opinion, you lay back three or four feet and as you enter the restart zone, you start to roll. I mean a mile an hour. It’s not much. Because if your momentum is going forward a mile an hour faster than the leader then when you both step on the gas, you’re gonna carry that mile an hour all the way down into turn one. These are two veterans. The amount of race winds on the front row is outstanding. And that’s why I like the no call because I like the artistic, the human element of the driver.”

However, Gordon chimed in with, “I feel like Martin Truex, when we looked at that, we played it back several times, listened to it, he may just starting to be picking up a little bit of momentum coming to him. He’s three feet back. He knows that NASCAR won’t call that. But I think if you look at it, if Denny waits until he gets to restart zone, Martin’s going to have that little bit of run coming to him.”

So, Steve Letarte and Todd Gordon also tackled that beef Martin Truex Jr had about Hamlin shoving him up the track. Letarte breaks it down, saying that if Hamlin was crowding Truex Jr all the way up against the wall, then yeah, you could cry foul for not giving the #19 car some breathing room. But that wasn’t the case. Sure, Hamlin didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for Truex Jr, but he didn’t box him in either.

And it turns out, this take isn’t flying solo. Kenny Wallace is backing up Hamlin too. Clint Bowyer, up in the booth, also shared his take on the controversy.

NASCAR’s inner circle has all sorts of takes on #11’s final move

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Kenny Wallace, while giving his take on Denny Hamlin’s final restart storm, seemed pretty chilled. He was basically saying that probably Hamlin jumped ahead a bit early, but it was all in the name of the win, and he nailed it. The real hiccup was on Martin Truex Jr’s team for not holding the lead after that pit stop. That’s what handed Denny the reins for that restart.

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On the flip side, Clint Bowyer, who was supposed to keep a bird’s-eye view from the commentary booth, as an analyst, was left scratching his head over the whole deal. He hit up social media to sort through the noise from fans calling out Hamlin for jumping the gun, admitting:

I’ll have to go back and watch but I thought I initially said he went early. We asked NASCAR and they said it was good. Replays showed it was obviously closer. By the start/finish, they were all but back door to door. The race was won on pit road.” So, what’s your take on this restart drama at Richmond?