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🏎 Restart Rules

🏎 Restart Rules

NASCAR defends controversial restart from Sunday night at Richmond

Kyle Dager
April 03, 2024

Good morning! It’s not against the rules unless you get caught… Unless, of course, your name is Denny Hamlin.

Sunday’s race at Richmond sparked quite the debate on restart rules. What’s your take?

Did Denny Hamlin jump the final restart?

Parker’s POV

Young Vs Old

Written by: Parker Kligerman

I have a question for you, sparked by a comment by the young phenom racecar driver Conor Zilisch, who remarked last week that he wanted to be “the youngest NASCAR Cup Series champion ever.”

What's more impressive? Being the youngest or the oldest to do something? For context, the current record holder of the youngest Cup Series champion is Bill Rexford, who won it at 23 years old. And the oldest? Bobby Allison, 45 years old.

I tweeted that I can argue both. For the youngest, the allure is obvious. As a culture, we are obsessed with the idea of being younger. There’s billions spent each year to help people feel, stay, and believe they are young. So if someone is the youngest to do something, we get all googly-eyed at their fresh-faced naivety, stomp-the-pedal in a way others weren’t because it’s somehow inside of you to go faster than everyone else.

On the flip side, to be the oldest, well, my god. You need to somehow work through all the problems we as humans seem to run into in almost every life. Family issues, death, financial issues, sickness, and the moment all athletes have “wait, there’s all this other stuff in life and the world - WOW!”

Which makes me think, it’s being the oldest that is a bigger accomplishment. To me, being the youngest is a stronger award for your parents and luck. And I know this. I too was once that young phenom on that path and thought I wanted the same thing. After winning 9 ARCA races in 2009 and a pole in my first Xfinity start at Kansas just 19 years old, I assumed that was my fate to be the youngest of everything. But the universe had other plans.

Now, as a 33-year-old who has fought back from the insignificance and silence of obscurity, I’ve realized there is nothing in this life quite like longevity and no force more powerfully pushing the other way than time. No matter if you trade stocks or chase checkered flags on dusty ovals around the USA, time will come for you. It will knock on the door each morning your eyes open from that ever-increasing interrupted sleep.

And on days you think you’ve tricked it, bend down, and the sudden shooting pain down your back will be a reminder. The cracks as you stretch your knees and the changing color of your hair. The lines across your face that seemed to show up like that person you tried to not invite to your party but they came anyway.

To have longevity at anything is impressive, to have it in a professional sport and especially one like driving race cars. I’m sorry, but this isn’t even a competition. Well, even though it is. You all can have the youngest but I more than ever want to shake the hand of the person who becomes the oldest.

To me, their mental strength, determination, and longevity are something we all should try to emulate, even when we are younger, because you never know what this could do for you.

You could become the oldest to ever do the thing you do and we’ll all be there thinking, “Damn, that’s impressive.”

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Restart Ruckus

🗣️ "There's no doubt he rolled early."
#NASCAR's Elton Sawyer explains the decision to not penalize @dennyhamlin in the moment for jumping the restart Sunday at @RichmondRaceway.
Full Interview → sxm.app.link/NASCARIntervie…
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR)
Apr 2, 2024

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Richmond Raceway took a controversial turn during the final laps, sparking debates across the board. Denny Hamlin, fresh off a stellar pit stop by his Joe Gibbs Racing crew, found himself in the lead on the final restart. A seemingly perfect start put him in the spotlight for potentially launching too early, a move that left teammate Martin Truex, Jr. seeing his victory hopes slip away into a mere top-five finish.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior VP of Competition, shared his insights on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, acknowledging the challenging nature of the call. "It’s a bang-bang call," Sawyer admitted, emphasizing the limitations faced by the officiating team in high-pressure moments, especially during NASCAR Overtime. Despite leveraging SMT data, the decision wasn't clear cut. Yet, Sawyer also went on to admit, "There’s no doubt he rolled early," hinting at a need for more vigilance in future races. 🚦🔍