Hard as we may all try, there are still human elements involved in policing sporting events. And, where there are human elements, the chance for human mistakes is there. Frankly, until the games are played perfectly by robots, I’m fine with that.
In hindsight, a day after the Richmond race, after reviewing the final restart multiple times, NASCAR says that Denny Hamlin did jump the restart. But, in the heat of the moment, with just seconds to make a decision, and understanding that Hamlin was the control car, it was close enough that they felt like he had not.
This is where the whole replay thing bites us in the butt. If you have to spend two or three minutes (or more) looking at a replay frame-by-frame, STOP! The intent of using replay was originally to overturn obvious missed calls. Not to zoom in so tight you can see if a guy’s fingernail touched the ball before it went out of bounds, or if Hamlin’s foot was actually pressing the throttle or hovering over it.
We want to be perfect, but to err is human. The goal is to minimize them.