The controversial restart to finish the Toyota Owners 400 over the weekend has created quite the spark across NASCAR, with a ton of drivers offering their opinion on the potentially too-early restart by eventual race-winner Denny Hamlin.
Joey Logano, who was a few cars back and finished in second after the restart, was quite opinionated on NASCAR’s lack of review on the restart.
“I’ll tell you one thing, if I get black-flagged for doing that next week I’m going to be pi--ed,” Logano said on Sirius XM radio.
As much as anything, Joey Logano questioned the process for the review, which never seemed to occur until it had become a controversial matter post-race.
“Because why was it OK last week?” Logano said. “I don’t think this was even a question. The restart was not even under review until (Martin) Truex said he jumped the start. Right, like that was it. It wasn’t even a thought in NASCAR’s mind, I don’t think.
“Because if there is something, they are very quick to say, ‘The restart’s under review.’ I mean they would say that while they were going down the back stretch, right after they took the green. That’s typically how it goes. And this one, not a word was said until way past the end of the race when we’re doing post-race interviews. And now it’s a hot topic.”
Joey Logano broke down one other similar situation he could recall that involved a restart under review, and it played out a little differently than Sunday’s at Richmond.
While Hamlin appeared to jump a little early and accelerate before reaching the restart zone, the scenario Logano recalled involved almost the opposite: a driver slowing down to avoid being penalized for a too-early restart.
“There was one under review in the Xfinity Race, right, when I was up in the FOX booth?” Logano recalled. “With Aric Almirola and who was on the outside of him there? I think maybe it was Chandler (Smith). I don’t remember exactly who it was. But so his defense, Aric’s defense to the roll and him trying to time the restart was to let him get all the way past him and then go. So go late in the box, that was Eric’s defense to that.
“And what that looks like, to everybody, it looks like Aric Almirola brake-checked the field. No he didn’t. He maintained the caution car speed or his speed he was entering the restart zone at and because everyone thought they were going because they were timing it it looks like he brake-checks the field, and they put that under review. There was nothing to review there, in my opinion, and they did review it and they realized nothing there. They let it go.”
Joey Logano’s conclusion?
“Gosh, if that’s under review, the last restart of the Cup Race should be under review,” he said.
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