Kevin Harvick’s Crew Chief Breaks Silence on Cheating Allegations: “Hand on My Heart..”

This week’s CARS Tour race at Caraway Speedway ended with a sour taste for Kevin Harvick Inc. The Cup driver’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, had been working the same role with his late-model team and had successfully managed to win the race with the #62 car. However, later on, due to a technical infraction, they found themselves in the heat of controversy. The crew chief confronted cheating allegations made against him and his team head-on by posting a tweet.

The allegations arose due to an illegal part discovered in the late-model car. In addition to addressing the allegations, he also offered an apology for any miscommunication from his side concerning the rules of the CARS Tour Series, particularly regarding what’s permissible and what’s not.

Kevin Harvick’s Crew Chief Rodney Childers clears the air on cheating allegations 

Childers recently tweeted a picture of a note which cleared the air on him cheating at the Caraway race. As per the note in the tweet, “I know everyone will say it’s cheating and pushing the limits. But hand on my heart, I had no idea that you couldn’t run big-end sway bar ends in the Cars Tour. This was something that has zero competitive advantage and would have never done if I knew. Sway bars are like springs. They only have a rate and they twist. Even though the bar had big ends, it was not a high-rate bar.”

pic.twitter.com/Aaa2qyHwcJ

— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) June 29, 2023

“The car would have handled exactly the same with smaller ends and a bigger center. I apologize to everyone involved. It puts everyone in a bad spot and looks bad. I take full responsibility and will find a rulebook and read it more carefully. I feel horrible for Layne, he didn’t deserve this. He did an incredible job. Congrats to Jarad, he had a great car also. RC”

Layne Riggs and Kevin Harvick Inc were disqualified after winning at Caraway

Layne Riggs, who races for Kevin Harvick’s team, had an incredible night when he clinched the win at Caraway Speedway. His excitement, however, was short-lived. Right after his victory, things took a turn for the worse. Officials conducted a post-race inspection and found a component on Riggs’ winning car to be exceeding permissible limits, leading to an immediate disqualification for him and his team.

As per a tweet by NASCAR journalist, Matt Weaver, “the race-winning Kevin Harvick Inc. No. 62 was found to have an over tolerance sway bar diameter in post-race technical inspection.“

As a matter of due diligence, the race winning Kevin Harvick Inc. No. 62 was found to have an over tolerance sway bar diameter in post-race technical inspection.

It’s a precedence setting matter so CARS Tour has some decisions to make.

It’s one they are not making tonight.

— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) June 29, 2023

Following an explanation by Childress, who was playing the role of crew chief for the #62 car, it was understood to have been a mistake in the interpretation of the rules. That does not mean that the disqualification would be overturned for the team.