Kevin Harvick comments after not being allowed to qualify at Kansas Speedway

Kevin Harvick failed inspection three times; Suffers NASCAR penalty

Kevin Harvick rolled to the inspection line ahead of Kansas Speedway qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Like a few others, he failed on the first pass through the line.

There’s no penalty for the first failure. From that point, teams get to roll out of inspection, head to the back of the line and do it again.

The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing machine did just that. However, while rolling through inspection on the second attempt, the team heard a noise from under the car.

It turned out to be a draftshaft rubbing on the built in safety tube that goes around the driveshaft. The team elected to pull the car out of line to fix it.

At this point, the team had failed two times by default. As a result, their car chief Robert “Cheddar” Smith was ejected from the speedway for the rest of the weekend.

When they returned to the inspection line for the third time, they failed again. This time it was for rear toe.

At that point, Harvick had essentially failed inspection three times. Per NASCAR rules, he would not be allowed to take to the track for qualifying.

They passed on the fourth attempt. Had he failed, Harvick would have been forced to serve a pass through penalty on lap one of the race.

Harvick suffered a similar penalty back in April at Bristol Motor Speedway. In that case, he failed four times and was required to make a pass through at the start of the race.

Related: Kevin Harvick to serve pass through penalty at the start of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway

Kevin Harvick on failing inspection at Kansas Speedway

“Yeah, I wouldn’t really classify it as ‘failing inspection.’,” Kevin Harvick told NBC Sports from the NASCAR Garage Area.

“We just failed it at the wrong time. For us, the draftshaft was dragging the tunnel when we put it at qualifying height.”

“We didn’t feel comfortable with sending the car on the race track. So, we kind of took the car out of inspection on our own.”

“Then, it failed inspection at the wrong time. For toe, which we didn’t think we were close on.”

“I think everybody thought that was the right thing to do. You just deal with the circumstances and go from there,” Harvick concluded.

The circumstances are that Kevin Harvick will start at the tail of the field for Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway.

Additionally, Harvick will serve a 30 minute practice penalty next week at Martinsville.

More

NASCAR starting lineup for Kansas Speedway

Multiple teams see inspection issues ahead of the race at Kansas Speedway

NASCAR tv schedule for Kansas Speedway

Kansas Race Results: May 11, 2019 (MENCS)

Kansas Race Results: October 21, 2018 (MENCS)

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Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Martin Truex Jr | Joe Gibbs Racing | NASCAR | Kansas Speedway

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