NASCAR: Despite Denials Harvick Seems 100 Percent Guilty
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
The majority of the NASCAR community will focus on when the caution was thrown on the final restart in Talladega and where Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in relation to Joey Logano on the track, however that is not where the focus should be. Instead the focus should be on the fact that it appears as though Kevin Harvick intentionally wrecked the field to save his spot in the Chase despite his claims following the race.
Late in the race Harvick was losing the engine in the No. 4 machine, although he was trying to do everything to bring it home, the final restart appeared to be what was going to do him in. On the second-to-last restart, Harvick jumped to the outside to allow the field to go by him given the fact that his car simply couldn’t go. On the last restart Harvick did not move to the outside, instead he held his line and appeared to drive into the No. 6 machine after it swerved to get around him.
Following the race Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin were very vocal in their belief that Harvick hit the No. 6 machine on purpose and triggered the caution with intent. Kenseth might have had the best view as he was restarting directly behind Harvick on the last restart and Kenseth pulled no punches in calling out Harvick’s actions when the race was over.
Had Harvick not made contact with Bayne and had the caution not come out when it did, Harvick was going to finish outside of the top-20. Such a finish would have put Harvick outside of the Chase bubble and ended his bid to defend his championship in 2015.
Following the race Bayne shared the same belief as Hamlin, Kenseth and others in regards to Harvick while speak with NASCAR on NBC.
"That’s a crappy way for Harvick to have to get in the Chase; to wreck somebody — what I believe to be on purpose (but) maybe it wasn’t. The restart before that, he had engine problems and got out of the way. I think he realized if the caution came out, he was gonna be fine. So I go by and get hooked in the left-rear. Harvick is a really good driver. I think he knows the limits of his car and where it’s at, so that’s why I think it was intentional."
When Harvick was asked about the incident following the race he gave a different take.
"I was hoping that it would kind of get going a little bit better and those guys would push me so I could kind of halfway get going and it didn’t go. As I pulled up, I didn’t even see the 6 (of Bayne) up there and clipped him and shot him across the inside. It sucks."
The biggest thing working against Harvick is his actions prior to the final restart. Harvick knew the shape that his car was in and he knew that it wasn’t going to survive that restart which is why on the previous restart he pulled to the top of the track to keep from wrecking the field. On the final restart he did not do that. By holding his line on the final restart Harvick had to have known that it was going to bunch the field up behind him and cause an issue. Stating that he was hoping the field would push him makes little to no sense.
How did Harvick expect the field to push him around the final two laps when they will be topping out at speeds of more than 190 MPH and his car simply wouldn’t be able to go that fast?
Additionally, the replays show Harvick looking in the mirror on the final restart. The NBC TV crew pointed this out numerous times in an effort to defend him. They spun it as he was looking in the mirror not to find someone to wreck but instead to help maintain his line because he knew cars would be passing him on both sides. If Harvick was indeed doing that it makes you wonder how he didn’t see Bayne pass him and why his car appeared to go up the track when it made contact with Bayne.
Those who support Harvick will spin this however they want to and that’s fine. Despite how damning all of the visual evidence appears to be, only Harvick truly knows what went down in those moments. The bottom line now is that Harvick and is the Chase because of the caution and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Whether by hook or crook, it is what it is. It’s just a shame that it appears to have been more by crook.