NASCAR Cup Series: Kevin Harvick wants to eliminate the Clash

Following Sunday’s 17-car wreck in the Advance Auto Part Clash, Kevin Harvick believes that the Clash should be completely eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

The first 55 laps of Sunday’s 75-lap Advance Auto Parts Clash, the annual NASCAR Cup Series preseason exhibition race, at Daytona International Speedway were relatively clean aside of the occasional rain shower.

But that changed as more rain appeared imminent on lap 56 and Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson went to make a move to take the lead away from Wood Brothers Racing’s Paul Menard, who had led 51 laps of the race at that point.

By attempting to pass Menard for the race lead, Johnson triggered a wreck that ended up involving 17 of the 20 drivers in the field. While Johnson ended up as the race leader after the wreck, only Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch and Team Penske teammate Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney made it through the carnage unscathed.

Here is a video of this wreck.

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As many people expected that it wouldn’t, the scheduled 75-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida did not last for 75 laps. As the rain came down, the race was ruled complete after 59 laps, and Johnson was declared the winner after leading only the race’s final four laps under caution.

But aside of the fact that the driver whose move triggered the 17-car wreck won the race, what illustrates just how chaotic the situation was is the pre-wreck to post-wreck timeline of Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman.

Before the wreck, Bowman was running in 18th place. He ended up being involved in the wreck. In fact, he was in the middle of it, as you can see in the video. Yet he emerged from it in fifth, trailing only Johnson and the three drivers who were not involved in the wreck in any way.

As a result of the fact that there were so many torn up cars as a result of this massive wreck, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, who was one of the 17 drivers involved in it, believes that the Clash, which has been held in every year since 1979, should be eliminated from the Cup Series schedule. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Yahoo.

"“The Clash is one of those things that I think we could probably eliminate as we go forward and look at the new schedule. The reason I say that is you’re trying to bring a lot of guys into the race. Originally when The Clash was brought about, it was about the pole winners and past winners of that particular race. They had a lot of guys that weren’t pole winners. And you have guys in the playoffs that were in the race.“To me, it would be good to combine with the All-Star Race. Maybe you take two positions in the All-Star Race because you’re always on the edge of, ‘Is that enough cars? Is that not enough cars?’ But take The Clash away. Make it a points race. Or make it one of the weekends we take off the schedule. As we talk about money and saving team owners money, Joe Gibbs wrecked five cars. Three hundred thousand dollars a car adds up pretty quick.”"

Do you agree with Kevin Harvick that the Advance Auto Parts Clash should be eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, or do you believe that it should continue to be the sport’s annual preseason exhibition race? Do you believe that the Clash will end up being removed from the schedule at some point, or do you believe that it is here to stay?