Denny Hamlin defends key decision from Joey Logano, No. 22 team in NASCAR All-Star Race

Joey Logano was in control of Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway until lap 216. That’s when Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith ordered Michael Waltrip to throw the yellow flag for the Promoter’s Caution.

Logano and the rest of the field were faced with a big decision: to pit for four fresh Goodyear tires or stay out. Logano and his No. 22 team chose the latter and it proved to be a race-altering decision. The three-time Cup Series champion held off Christopher Bell for as long as he could until Bell finally executed the race-winning pass with nine to go.

In hindsight, you can say it was the wrong decision to stay out. But Denny Hamlin saw it differently and he explained why on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

“Truthfully, I thought it was the right call to stay out when I saw that he had five people staying out with him,” Hamlin said. “So many of these restarts results on whether they’re a success or a failure comes down to what happens on the first few corners.

“I’m pretty certain of this is that I watched the first corner and had Christopher Bell not been able to get to the inside of Carson Hocevar, he doesn’t win the race. But he got three cars in that first lap and that’s when it was over. Once those fresh tires get to third place after one lap, you’re cooked.”

Joey Logano crew chief admits team ‘missed that call’ to not pit late in All-Star Race

Logano was frustrated after the race. He accused Bell of running him up into the wall to take the lead. He then took issue with the Promoter’s Caution. Logano missed out on a $1 million check despite having arguably the best car, leading a race-high 139-of-250 laps.

You can point to the Promoter’s Caution as the moment where the race changed. Logano’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, would like to have that one back.

“Well, it just comes down to trying to decide how many guys are going to stay with you,” Wolfe told Frontstretch. “Which, obviously, hindsight’s 20/20, and to your point, we had the best car, and we didn’t race. So, missed that call, you know. And the cars that did stay with us, our teammate [Ryan Blaney] being one of them, he had an issue off [Turn] 4 there and got sideways.

“So, really, the 20 just never had to race anybody much. He got to us too quick, and Joey drove his butt off to hold him off. You know, he used us up here to get by us, and Joey couldn’t get back to his bumper. So, you know, frustrating because second place doesn’t really mean anything tonight, it’s all about winning, and we just missed the mark a little bit.”