Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 11 driver Denny Hamlin called the current Cup restarts a “problem” after the race at Kansas Speedway.
Hamlin didn’t like the overtime restart in the Cup Series playoffs race at Kansas and compared it to an ARCA restart. While race winner Tyler Reddick was able to profit from the restart, it cost Hamlin the race.
Speaking on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin urged the fans to notice the chaotic restart.
“This is a problem in our series, for sure. I want to encourage the fans, look at the aerial video of the final restart. It looks like an ARCA restart. There’s cars spread out all over the front stretch. All of that is because somebody started laying back, somebody else started reacting and laying back, then the next car laid back. And if you look, there’s two rows organized, and those were the first two rows of the field. Everyone else was spread way out because everyone’s playing these stupid games at the end that’s bulls***.
“Essentially what happens — when we take off for a restart — it is a drag race. These cars don’t have a whole lot of power, so we’re wide open until we get to Turn 3.”
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After the situation at Kansas Speedway, Hamlin believes that NASCAR will finally take action to address the situation.
“NASCAR has said, ‘stop laying back.’ They’ve said it, but they haven’t done anything about it yet,” Hamlin said. “I would suspect, this week, that they do address it. … It’s just starting to become a trend where these guys are laying way back and they’re getting a run.”
Hamlin was leading the race before the overtime restart. However, after a terrible restart, he lost to his 23XI Racing driver for his second victory of the season. As for Hamlin, he finished second in the race.