Kevin Harvick was handed an L1 penalty by NASCAR after images of an illegal car went viral
Following Kevin Harvick’s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he was handed a penalty. He passed post-race inspection. However, at the NASCAR R&D Center he was handed a steep penalty for a failed window/roof brace as well as an illegal side skirt part.
7 playoff points were removed from Kevin Harvick after his win at las Vegas. NASCAR also took 20 driver and owner points away from the team. In addition, crew chief Rodney Childers was fined $50,000 and the car chief Robert Smith has been suspended for two weeks.
“You definitely have to understand how to react to these situations. As a team, it’s obviously not the first time we’ve been here. For me personally, I’ve probably had more fines than anybody left in this garage,” Kevin Harvick told Fox Sports ahead of the ISM Raceway event.
“It’s something you want to use as motivation for your guys. Everybody’s had a great attitude about things.”
Harvick’s roof and rear window were drooping at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As the Stewart-Haas Racing driver went to victory lane, photos immediately began to circulate from the fans.
“This is not something where you want to have fan officiating. And officiating by pictures and video cameras. If you do that, there’s only a certain group of people that are going to be on TV and you’re not being fair to the rest of the field as far as officiating everything the same way.”
That’s a really interesting and valid point. Harvick is saying that the front runners are on TV more than the rest of the field. By default, allowing fan officiating will result in higher scrutiny of the front runners. That’s not exactly fair across the board.
Golf used to accept fan officiating. In one case, fans determined that a ball moved after placement of the ball. As a result, the PGA penalized the golfer. It was something that was missed by the officials, the LIVE tv viewers pointed it out. This days, the PGA Tour doesn’t allow fan submissions.
“I felt like NASCAR had a lot of pressure put on them to react to a situation. And then didn’t explain it very well, as to how it happened.”
The failure was in the roof. The window bracing had nothing wrong with it. It met all the rules and did all the things it was suppose to.
-Kevin Harvick
“As you look at the penalty and you hear the things that were said and you hear the reaction — The failure was in the roof. The window bracing had nothing wrong with it. It met all the rules and did all the things it was suppose to.”
The window penalty was in regards to NASCAR rule 20.4.8.1. NASCAR’s quote of that rule reads, “A brace that supports the rear window failed and did not meet specifications for keeping the rear window glass rigid in all directions, at all times.”
“Sure, they found a technicality to make the penalty what it needed to be. From the side skirt being steel instead of aluminum. That’s on us.”
NASCAR hit them with dual violations. The roof support was just one side of the L1 penalty. The side skirts were a second and unrelated part of the same penalty.
That was last week. This week, NASCAR heads to ISM Raceway in Phoenix, AZ. It’s a track that might as well have Harvick’s name in the title.
“Just a lot of technicalities. Hopefully we can keep everybody off of twitter and officiate this place evenly from one end to the other.”
“Our car was really good in race trim. Hopefully it stays that way and we can stomp a mud hole on ’em,” Harvick concluded.
In final practice, Kevin Harvick was quickest over a 10-lap average run. His car is good on long runs. However, Harvick will start 10th on the grid in today’s race at ISM Raceway.
Kevin Harvick has won the last two MENCS events. I would like to congratulate Kevin Harvick on his 101st win NASCAR national series win. He claimed that win, 3 hours from now.
More
Related: ISM Raceway Practice – 10 lap averages
Related: NASCAR issues L1 penalty to Kevin Harvick after Las Vegas
Related: The NASCAR Rulebook: Rear window rules
Related: Las Vegas Motor Speedway results – MENCS
Related: Kevin Harvick’s rear window at Las Vegas (Photos)
Related: Dale Earnhardt Jr on Kevin Harvick’s rear window, “It’s incredible ingenuity.”
Related: #4 crew chief Rodney Childers discusses the rear window at LVMS
Related: NASCAR industry reacts to Kevin Harvick’s rear window
Related: Kevin Harvick on victory burnouts, pre-race tech and penalties
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Kevin Harvick | LVMS | ISM Raceway | NASCAR
