Kevin Harvick: Denny Hamlin dared NASCAR to penalize him, got away with it

Kevin Harvick watched Denny Hamlin’s controversial restart live from the booth during FOX’s coverage of last weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.

While he didn’t believe Hamlin’s jump of the restart was super blatant at the time, his opinion has changed a bit. During the latest episode of Harvick’s Happy Hour, the former NASCAR champion believes Hamlin dared NASCAR to penalize him, and they decided against it, leading to a win for the No. 11.

“When we first showed the replay at the end of the race, everything happened, and it was hard to tell who went where. We showed the replay, and I said, ‘It definitely looked like he rolled before the line.’ Well, when you go back today, he definitely went way before the line, and he took off,” Harvick explained. “So I think from a driver’s perspective, and everything that you do, you know at the end of the race that they aren’t going to, it’s going to have to be pretty blatant, for them to call that restart violation.

“As a driver, you know you want to go as early in the process as possible to take off, so that you get the advantage on the outside guy. You don’t want to wait in the box. You want to go at the very beginning of the box, to be able to take off. So Denny, you know, he took off early. Got away with it. Won the race.”

Of course, there’s two sides to every coin, and it was Martin Truex Jr. who was bitten by Hamlin’s decision on the restart. Harvick believes that while Truex Jr. was screwed to an extent, the No. 19 should’ve been ready to move on the restart.

“I think, on the flip side, Martin lost the race,” Harvick added. “He flipped out, after the race. So he had a bad pit stop. His pit stop was one second slower than Denny Hamlin’s, and lost the lead. Lost control of the race. And then Denny snookered him on the last start.

“Whether he’s going to go at the line or before the line, you’ve got to be ready, knowing that you can go, he’s going to go at some point. You’ve got to fire with him, and he was obviously not ready to go, when Denny went a little bit early.”

Regardless, Denny Hamlin’s win at Richmond brought plenty of controversy this week, but Kevin Harvick and the rest of the NASCAR world will be waiting to see what the ramifications are moving forward.