NASCAR fails spectacularly with call on controversial Richmond finish

The comment Tuesday by Elton Sawyer — senior vice president of competition of NASCAR — came in response to Denny Hamlin clearly jumping the final restart before the authorized zone at Richmond on Sunday night, allowing him to win the race.

There is no doubt this thought process was on Hamlin's mind, too. It's almost as if he was intentionally daring race control to make such a crucial call. NASCAR had a chance to remind him no one is above the rules, but it failed spectacularly.

It's not like such a call would have been unprecedented. Jimmie Johnson was penalized out of a surefire win at Dover in 2013 for the same violation on the final restart. David Ragan was sent to the back of the line in the final laps of the 2011 Daytona 500 for switching lanes too soon. Regan Smith had a win discredited at Talladega in 2008 for passing below the racing surface coming to the checkers.

This isn't the first time in recent years that Hamlin has benefitted from a controversial non-ruling. While NASCAR has often been known to overofficiate, seldom is the inverse true, in which something that should be a penalty isn't called.

NASCAR had never shied from dropping the hammer even on its biggest names, such as when Chase Elliott was suspended for crashing Hamlin in the 2023 Coca-Cola 600, or Bubba Wallace did the same to Kyle Larson in Las Vegas in 2022.

This is a different situation, but it raises the same eyebrow-raising questions of favoritism.

There is an elephant in the room here: Hamlin is a protected figure in the Cup Series garage due to his connection to 23XI Racing, a team he co-owns with NBA icon Michael Jordan and which houses Wallace. Furthermore, Sunday's race was sponsored by Toyota, the manufacturer Hamlin drives for. Had Hamlin been penalized, Ford driver Joey Logano would have won.

This is an awful look even if neither of those issues factored into NASCAR's decision (or lack thereof).

For a sport that historically carries a reputation of valuing entertainment over fairness and has been accused even by its own drivers of manipulating the outcomes of races, all this does is add fuel to the fire.

And for the sanctioning body to openly say that it refused to enforce its rules out of fear of backlash... yikes.

Shame on you, NASCAR.