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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Carl Edwards didn’t like the way Brad Keselowski started the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Kevin Harvick criticized Matt Kenseth‘s approach to restarts.
A sensitive subject all season, the issue with Sunday’s green flags wasn’t one of jumping the start, it was hanging back too much.
“Does the leader get to stab the gas then lift again?” Carl Edwards asked at the first caution Sunday, still irked about the race’s start under the direction of pole-sitter Keselowski. “I almost just went, but he almost burped it enough they wouldn’t notice.”
Edwards’ team reminded him of the bottom line on restarts — a good point for fans to remember, as well: “As long as the green flag drops, you can go.”
“I wasn’t paying attention to the flag,” Edwards responded. But as a contender who is now fourth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, he quickly refocused: “We’ll get ’em next time. … He does that every time. We’ll get him.”
It’s the No. 20 driver who games restarts every week, according to the No. 4’s pilot.
“How long are they going to let the 20 get away with that? Slowing down like that (on the restart),” Harvick asked after Kenseth led the field to green following a caution.
Leave it to a racing legend such as four-time champ Jeff Gordon to break it down for us: “You know, I think it’s nice to give the leader that option to go when he wants to go, but he’s gotta maintain a little bit better pace if they’re going to do that.”
Gordon says he doesn’t agree with the way Kenseth restarts, though he “loves the guy.” But it is the control car’s prerogative to go at will anywhere inside the restart zone, which is now 180 feet at Kansas Speedway, double the 90 feet for May’s race.
“That’s just (Kenseth’s) way of going about it,” Gordon said. “When someone comes down that slow and then they take off the last second, if you’re five rows back, it’s an absolute mess. Other than that, I thought the restarts were really good.”