Kyle Petty Disagrees With NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett on the Quality of Racing in Richmond After Denny Hamlin’s Win

Last weekend, Denny Hamlin triumphed at the Richmond Raceway. In the process, he helped kick-start Toyota’s 2022 campaign for the Cup title. More than that, he pretty much established that he will try to lead Joe Gibbs Racing’s charge. Admittedly, this race win at Richmond was a lot more tactical in nature. In light of this, former NASCAR drivers Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett spoke about the triumph.

Jarrett said, “Racing was outstanding. I think every race this season has been really, really good. This one in a completely different way, because of strategies. The different strategies that the drivers and teams had, made this just fascinating to watch. Not knowing exactly, what might happen.”

Kyle Petty had a more negative take on the win

On the other end of the spectrum, Kyle Petty was not overly fond of the strategic factor behind race wins. He harked back to the last six races, which were more action-packed. Admittedly, he did make some good arguments on why NASCAR wins based on strategy were inferior to ones that were on the track itself.

READ MORE: Denny Hamlin Reveals the Condition He Set With Joe Gibbs to “Fire” Him This NASCAR Season

According to him, “I didn’t like the race. That was because, we had six really good races where everybody raced, raced, raced. Then we have a strategy race, which is totally different. You have to be so inside baseball to understand the strategies. I’ve seen writers that have written stuff in the last day or two. Seen fans’ comments, and they don’t know what they saw. They know Denny won the race and won it on strategy, and they know Kevin was second. But they don’t understand how it happened. Its hard when the industry, or the people inside the industry don’t even understand how it happened”

In other words, the people with in-depth knowledge of the sport could appreciate strategy-induced victories. However, for the more casual viewers, the whole race would practically make their head spin. While they would see Hamlin ultimately crossing the finish line, they would have no idea how he got there.