Last weekend’s race at Darlington proved to be a disaster for playoff runner Kevin Harvick. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver ended up serving a penalty that saw him finish the race in the middle of the pack, potentially losing out on a chance for a possible win. Harvick’s calamity arose after 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick attempted to slow down on the track and contacted a fast-approaching Ryan Newman and spun the latter out.
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During the time of the incident, Harvick was approaching the pit road for his last round of stops. However, the timing was such that the pit road closed right as Harvick entered it. Meanwhile, Harvicks’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, commented about why they chose to pit the 2014 Cup Series champion anyway, risking a penalty, rather than letting him drive by and come back next time around.
Kevin Harvick’s crew chief reveals why they decided to risk a penalty
Apparently, the #4 car crew was not aware if Harvick had crossed the commitment line for the pit road before or after the red lights. Because of that uncertainty, the team decided to pit anyway, instead of taking a wild guess.
Childers mentioned, “Correct, but in those 15 seconds, we didn’t know if we made the light or not. So the safe bet was to pit, so if you made the light you would be the leader. Driving thru, and then finding out we made the light would be even more of a disaster.“
It made sense for the team to call Harvick in for a service at the moment. However, it did end up costing him the crucial playoff race in one way or the other. The retiring SHR driver now has only two remaining races to pull himself out of the bottom four to secure the next round of the playoffs.
Correct, but in those 15seconds we didn’t know if we made the light or not. So the safe bet was to pit, so if you made the light you would be the leader.
Driving thru, and then finding out we made the light would be even more of a disaster. https://t.co/snCqukQ7Ad— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) September 4, 2023
Childers was not particularly pleased with Tyler Reddick’s antics
Had Reddick’s team decided to pit him the next lap, the entire penalty shenanigan could have been avoided. Who knows, the SHR driver could have made a run for the win. Alas, Reddick’s sudden decision to slow down in order to make the pits inadvertently wreaked havoc instead.
Following the first playoff race, Childers noted, “I mean it all happened because the #45 tried to do something he shouldn’t have… At that point, you gotta run one more lap and not just stop in the middle of the racetrack. That part’s the more disappointing thing.”
Despite his disapproval of the #45 car’s strategy, Childers acknowledged that he understood why their crew chief decided to plan something like that. Meanwhile, due to the incident and the subsequent penalty, Harvick ended the race down in the 19th place.
