NASCAR Richmond finish exposes the dark side of auto racing

It's one of the harshest realities about auto racing. Unlike other individual sports such as golf or tennis, sometimes the competitor who performs the best does not win — and it's completely outside of their control.

On Sunday, that was Martin Truex Jr. Truex led a race-high 228 laps and had passed Kyle Larson for the lead on what figured to be the final run, as he had stretched out to a comfortable advantage over Joey Logano and Hamlin with only a few laps to go. 

Then the caution came out for Larson spinning from contact with Bubba Wallace, and everything changed.

Everyone came to pit road for fresh tires and Hamlin's pit crew handed him the lead. Then on the ensuing restart, it sure seemed that Hamlin took off before the authorized zone, which should have been called a penalty. 

It wasn't, and the No. 11 driver was credited with the win, despite doing nothing on the track to earn it.

In fact, the only reason Hamlin was even in the picture was because of a call by his crew chief Chris Gabehart to pit him later than the other leaders under the final green-flag pit sequence. Those fresher tires had him storming through the field prior to the late caution and chasing down Truex and Logano at a frantic pace, but he had stalled out in third in the closing laps.

On merit, that's where he should have finished. However, NASCAR is not always a fair sport — whether it's an unlucky parts failure on a car that's leading the race going away, or an ill-timed caution that forces a strategy shakeup, far too often drivers become passengers while their crews and crew chiefs decide their fate.

There's nothing that can really be done about it. It's been a part of auto racing since its inception, and will be for as long as the sport exists. 

That said, for the racing purist, it doesn't make finishes such as Sunday's sting any less.