Denny Hamlin understands why Kyle Larson had to do everything he could when Brad Keselowski ran out of gas, but it doesn’t mean Ryan Blaney didn’t get a bad deal in the Brickyard 400.
On the most recent episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin discussed why he believes NASCAR was involved in a rough scenario near the end of the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including some contentious calls.
“It was just a bad scenario all around at the end of that race,” Hamlin says. “There were so many things that were just, were not — didn’t work out well, for a lot of people, and it was just, some of the calls, I thought, were just super questionable, when it comes to, you know, whether they throw that caution at the end or not.”
The timing of the final caution that secured the win for Larson was polarizing, as well as the restart where Larson took the lead from Blaney. Hamlin believes it’s still better to go earlier than later on the restart, even with the confusion we saw taking place, but the No. 12 was in a no-win situation regardless.
“It’s still better to go early than it is to go late, but again, I don’t know, I think that you probably — Blaney was just in a tough spot. The outside lane just was not going to work,” Hamlin added. “It didn’t matter if it cleared him by two inches, the bottom was just going to be so significantly faster, so the No. 12 was done when the No. 5 slid up there.
“So, I just think, in that situation, in the front row, maybe we just let the leader, or let the lone car left on the front row, stay there. No sliding up. Maybe that’s more fair, right? Does that seem like a more reasonable thing? Because it definitely changed the outcome of this race, without a doubt.”
Perhaps NASCAR will change their stance if a similar situation arises in the future. Nevertheless, Kyle Larson was the one kissing the bricks when it was all over in Indianapolis, and you can’t take that moment away from him.
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