Denny Hamlin blasts fans hung up on finish of Toyota Owners 400: ‘GET OVER IT’

There’s been some minor controversy since Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 wrapped up with Denny Hamlin the winner following a late caution and a restart that sent the race to overtime.

Hamlin appeared to hit the gas ever so slightly before the white line that lets racers know when they can open it up, inching just ahead of his competitors in the process. Such an occurrence isn’t all that uncommon, in fact, and NASCAR even ruled the restart was perfectly legal.

But many have moaned that Hamlin’s extra edge was unfair.

The winning driver has apparently had enough of it. Denny Hamlin took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon and urged people to move on, noting it wasn’t the slightly fast restart that earned him the win, but the stellar work of his pit crew.

“I sure wish someone would come out with a new paint scheme or something,” Hamlin wrote. “Ain’t y’all tired of talking about the same thing for 48 hours now? Our team won the race because of the pit crew. Not the restart. Y’all just sour.

“GET OVER IT!”

The pit stop did allow Denny Hamlin to maneuver near the front of the pack, getting him a great look at the win in the final moments. In fact, seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty, giving his Petty Race Recap for Richmond, said as much.

“That’s what wound up winning the race,” Petty said. “I don’t like to see a race where the guys have run the whole race, made their pit stops, done their strategy, had it all figured out, they’re out there leading the race or running fifth or whatever and then all of a sudden, they have a two-lap race.

“We sat there and watched 398 laps and it was just a lost cause more or less. And then they just mix them all up. But like you said, it wound up that the pit crew got the 11 [Hamlin] in front. The 11 was good, had a good second, third or fourth-place car, but the deal was when the chips were down, they got the job done.”

The late restart came after Bubba Wallace got into the back bumper of Kyle Larson with two laps to go and spun him out, bringing out the caution flag.

Larson had appeared to get a little loose on a portion of the straightaway, and Wallace simply came up behind him and knocked him off course as a result.

Wallace made sure to apologize to Larson after the race, noting the wreck wasn’t an intentional one.