Denny Hamlin reacts to controversial Xfinity Series restart between Kyle Larson, Sam Mayer

Kyle Larson had no peers for the majority of Saturday’s Hard Rock Bet 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Larson led 132-of-200 laps at Homestead, holding a commanding 16-second lead with seven laps remaining. But a late caution meant there would be overtime. On the overtime restart, Sam Mayer got into the back of Larson before they reached the start/finish line. The race which Larson dominated, slipped from his grasp; Justin Allgaier took the checkered flag.

Denny Hamlin said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast he felt Larson would be most vulnerable on restarts, and that proved true on the final one.

“Sometimes driver error is what makes restarts great, and driver error is what caused Kyle to not get the restart he needed,” Hamlin said. “He was critical of Sam Mayer, but Sam, to give him credit, was critical of himself. He was like, ‘Man, I wish I had to do it all over again. I got to him too soon; I was trying to time it.’ Sam’s doing everything he can to try to roll on him and he’s trying to predict when the 17 [Larson] is gonna pull off so he can give him a push — or give him a push, stay attached and as soon as they get to the start/finish line, pull out of line and try to go three-wide.

“And that’s where the 17 I thought was most vulnerable to the 41 [Mayer] was going to be on restarts. I thought that Mayer was the only real challenger to Larson on Saturday, and it turned out to be the only challenge to him winning the race.”

Kyle Larson, Sam Mayer address overtime restart at Homestead

Larson was going for the weekend sweep at Homestead. He won Friday’s Truck Series race and raced his way to Victory Lane in Sunday’s Cup Series race. The Xfinity Series win got away from him, and Larson knows exactly why.

“Obviously, a bummer, again, to have another Homestead race play out that way. Yeah, I can’t go when my rear tires are off the ground,” Larson said after the race. “So, I know it looks like I choked another one away, but I did everything I thought I could.

“The 41 just lagged back and slammed the shit out of me and [picked my tires off the ground]. Bummer but cool to have as big of a lead as we had.”

Mayer had the chance to speak on the incident. He admitted he “mistimed” the restart.

“Yeah, I mean, I just mistimed it unfortunately and got to his bumper a little too early,” Mayer said. “He went really, really late in the box, just playing games. Like, that’s what you’ve got to do at this level to get the advantage, but he just waited really long, and I wasn’t kind of ready for him to wait that long. I was giddy to get going.”