Although Martin Truex Jr. was left fuming at how his teammate Denny Hamlin jumped the restart and used him up to bag the victory, some race pundits would argue that Hamlin did what he had to do in order to win. Isn’t that why everyone is racing in the first place? But again, NASCAR has reviewed restarts before and scrutinized them in the light of restart gamesmanship. Interestingly, NASCAR turned a blind eye to the last restart at Richmond on Sunday.
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Elton Sawyer, Senior Vice President of Competition at NASCAR, said, “We reviewed that. Obviously, the 11 was a controlled vehicle, it was awful close but we deemed it to be a good restart.” However, leading 228 laps of the race and yet, not getting the win was too bitter for Martin Truex Jr. to let it slide that easily. He pulled no punches, blaming his teammate for using him up on that last restart.
NASCAR's Elton Sawyer on wet tires, non competitive pit stops, did they see a jumped restart and why the Kyle Busch wall brush was a caution pic.twitter.com/RbMAqUkPfR
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) April 1, 2024
“He jumped the start and then just used me up in Turn 1,” said Truex. “Definitely sucks but good solid day. Just have to come back next week.” Needless to say, he didn’t like the way Hamlin raced him. “I didn’t really appreciate a teammate racing me like that. I wish he would have gave me a chance. But that’s the way it is,” Truex told NBC.
Denny Hamlin owes it to his pit crew
Denny Hamlin is a driver who will do whatever it takes to win. And the momentum that he already has picked up could even get him his 60th win this year itself. He has won three (two points paying) races this season and with that, he’s already locked in the playoffs. It was win number 53 for Hamlin and also his fifth at Richmond, which is a track that most drivers struggle to perform at.
“This is all pit crew; this is a team win, for sure,” said Hamlin, who led just 17 laps and beat a fast-charging Kyle Larson and Joey Logano by a close margin of 0.269 seconds. “This trophy needs to go to each of these pit crew members. They did an amazing job and have been killing it all year.”
But what will the beef between him and his teammate lead to? Will there be more on track drama at Martinsville or a speedy reconciliation? We can only wait and watch.
