In the current era of NASCAR, Denny Hamlin is one of the few drivers who have started more races, won more events, or controlled more race starts from the pole. However, a regulation that one of the sport’s most seasoned veterans believed he understood fully caught him off guard, despite his 48 career pole awards that lead all active Cup Series drivers and tie him for 10th most all-time. What followed was a penalty, confusion inside Joe Gibbs Racing, and a surprising admission from Hamlin himself about a mistake he never saw coming.

On a new episode of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio podcast, Hamlin said that he had misinterpreted the precise location where NASCAR permits the pole sitter to launch.

“I guess I just definitely wasn’t aware that you have to be in the restart zone. I’ve started many, many races from the pole, and I have always just used the rule of thumb, like as long as you wait a little while, as they say in the driver’s meeting they say, when the green flag is displayed, you can start the race.

“I always say they’re gonna throw the green when I take off. So, I just assumed that I could just go whenever, and I did not realize that it actually, the hard line is the beginning of the restart zone. So, learning, learning moment, that’s for sure.”

As soon as the field rolled out for the Cracker Barrel 400, the trouble began. Before arriving at the proper zone in Nashville, Denny Hamlin accelerated from the pole position, which NASCAR officials promptly determined to be a start infraction. Before the race had even begun, the No. 11 Toyota was sent from first place all the way to the back of the 38-car field by the governing body’s pass-through penalty.

To understand exactly what Hamlin got wrong, the rule itself is worth spelling out, which reads: “The initial start and all restarts shall be initiated within the restart zone on the racetrack. Double red lines on the outer wall designate the start of the restart zone.”

But it wasn’t always like this. Earlier in NASCAR’s history, before restart zones were hardened into black-and-white enforcement, the policing of jumping starts was highly subjective and deeply contentious. A driver might be flagged, or might not be, for what looked like the same infraction, and it routinely sparked controversy.

The restart zone, as a defined, marked line, reduced that ambiguity. And it was only in the late 2010s, with the introduction of double-file restarts, that NASCAR made the restart rule truly black and white. Since then, enforcement has been consistent.

And again, while unusual, Hamlin isn’t the first driver to get caught by NASCAR’s race start/restart procedures. Over the years, drivers, including Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, and others, have all faced scrutiny or penalties for race start/restart-related infractions as NASCAR has tightened enforcement around the restart zone. The purpose of the regulation is to prevent gamesmanship and guarantee that the leader cannot obtain an unfair advantage prior to arriving at the approved launch point.

What made the Nashville incident even more surprising was how a driver as experienced as Denny Hamlin was in the midst of it, and after having had enough time to think about the start since the race was delayed by a little more than an hour due to rain. The confusion it caused quickly reached the top of the Joe Gibbs Racing pit box.

Team owner Joe Gibbs initially believed Hamlin had simply driven off the field, not that his own driver had vanished to the back due to a self-inflicted infraction.

“I will say this, that was different. I kept looking, ‘hey, I totally missed it and so the whole time I’m looking up there, they don’t list the 11 and I go, they’re missing the 11’. I actually saw you coming around late. I thought you were out that far out front,” Gibbs said after the race.

That said, the challenge increased significantly once the penalty was served. Passing Nashville is infamously tough, particularly when others are using identical tire tactics. The team’s evening looked like it had been destroyed as they had to start from the back following a self-inflicted error.

However, Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 squad mounted one of the season’s most remarkable comebacks. Hamlin entered the top ten on Lap 103 after methodically navigating through traffic, and he kept moving up as the race progressed. He gradually returned to contention with strategy calls, powerful restarts, and a consistent race pace. He was once more one of the leaders by the closing stages.

When Hamlin and fellow Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe engaged in a ferocious battle in the closing laps, the comeback peaked. As the race came down to the wire, the three JGR drivers engaged in a three-wide battle. In the end, Hamlin won to earn his maiden victory at Nashville Superspeedway and his 62nd career Cup Series triumph.

“Man, what an unbelievable day,” Hamlin said afterward. “Starting first, going to last and back to first.”

Denny Hamlin would have still liked some changes

Talking about the future of the Cup Series at Nashville Superspeedway, Denny Hamlin has made it clear that he wouldn’t mind if the race were shortened from 400 miles to 300 miles. He seems to be unable to understand why the 1.33-mile track, with a slower average speed per lap, races as long as Charlotte Motor Speedway or other 1.5-mile tracks.

“It’s still too long of a race, though. … Another thing, [if] I am the CEO of NASCAR,” Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental podcast on Tuesday.

“Like, somehow, when you’re looking at the length of the races, the math doesn’t math to me. It’s that, you’re running the same lap times, while the mileage might be the same, the Whatever 400, well, if you’re running a slower pace, it takes you longer to get to that 400 miles. So, on a normal mile-and-a-half that we run a 400-mile race, like at Michigan this weekend, that race will be two-thirds of the time that this one takes, because we’re running so much faster.

“So, it’s about lap time and speed, versus mileage. So, at a race track like this, it should be 300 miles. Because you’re running a slower pace.”

The race has taken around three to four hours over the past few years at Nashville Superspeedway. But it is tough to make comparisons with Michigan here since Michigan is the fastest track in the Cup series schedule, with a two-mile length that allows races to finish within three hours owing to fewer cautions.

The fastest Cup race at Nashville took place in 2023, and the time was 3:00:07. However, in this year’s race, the time rose significantly to 3:44:57 due to an increased caution count from four to eleven. It leads to the question of whether it is the length of the race that matters or something else.