NASCAR: Kyle Busch’s comments about Kevin Harvick are inaccurate
By Asher Fair
Some of Kyle Busch’s comments about Kevin Harvick following the 20th race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season are slightly inaccurate.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch made several comments about Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick following the conclusion of the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, which was the 20th race of the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season.
With seven laps to go in the 301-lap race around the four-turn, 1.058-mile (1.703-kilometer) New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval in Loudon, New Hampshire, Harvick used his #4 Ford to move the #18 Toyota of Busch out of the way and move him up the track.
Here is a video of these exciting moments leading up to the checkered flag being flown.
Harvick capitalized on this move and took the lead before going on to win the race by 1.877 seconds ahead of Busch in second place.
Here is what Busch had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.com.
"“When you’re slower, I guess you kind of expect it, but you also think that a guy’s going to race you fair and try to pass you clean first. I don’t think he (Kevin Harvick) ever tried to pass me clean once he got there. He just kept hitting me in the rear bumper each and every time. It was getting increasingly harder.”"
Aside of these remarks, Busch’s post-race comments were fairly low-key by his standards. However, the fact that he just expected Harvick to race him clean and fair is interesting seeing as how Busch literally won a race just over three weeks ago by spinning out the leader in the penultimate turn on the final lap of the race.
Just over three weeks ago, Busch spun out the #42 Chevrolet of race leader Kyle Larson in turn three of the four-turn Chicagoland Speedway oval on the 267th and final lap of the Overton’s 400 before going on to win the race, and he proceeded to tell the fans, many of whom were booing him, that “If you don’t like that kind of racing, don’t even watch.”
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Harvick moving Busch up the track at New Hampshire pales in comparison to Busch spinning out Larson at Chicagoland, so Busch may want to take his own advice in this particular instance.
Prior to moving him out of the way, Harvick trailed Busch for 36 consecutive laps, including 33 consecutive laps under green flag conditions following the race’s final restart, which took place on lap 263 with 39 laps remaining.
Sure, Harvick bumped Busch a few times, but it wasn’t like he was trying to get around Busch if and only if he could bump him and send him up the track, ruining Busch’s race in the process. In fact, he didn’t even ruin Busch’s race, as Busch still finished in second place.
If Harvick simply wanted to ruining Busch’s race, Busch’s chances of winning the race would have been history several laps, probably dozens of laps, prior to lap 295, which is when the contact between the two drivers took place, and he likely would have fallen much farther down the field than second place.
Busch saying that he believes that Harvick never tried to pass him clean or fair toward the end of the race could not be more inaccurate.
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Do you believe that Kyle Busch’s comments about Kevin Harvick are inaccurate, or do you believe that they are accurate? Do you believe that Harvick raced Busch clean and fair before moving him up the track to take the lead and then go on to win the race?