After a fire at Darlington Raceway, Kevin Harvick was quick to place blame on the Next Gen car
On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs opened via Darlington Raceway. It was a dramatic race for many playoff drivers but none more so than Kevin Harvick who left the race in a ball of flames.
Kevin Harvick blames crappy parts for NASCAR fire at Darligton (Video)
Harvick’s car was on fire for several laps. Eventually, the fire came into the cockpit, through the dashboard. Harvick was forced to stop as he explained, “I couldn’t make myself sit in there and burn up.”
The fire didn’t appear to stem from any contact. Instead, just intense rubber buid up and excessive heat during one of NASCAR’s logest events, ‘The Southern 500.’
However, a long race isn’t an excuse for a fire. And Kevin Harvick was quick to place blame on the next gen car. He noted ‘crappy parts’ were the cause.
With the Next Gen car, each car is a spec design. Additionally, many parts are identical and come from a single manufacturer. NASCAR took a big swing to level the playing field and reduce costs.
With any new car, there’s big to be worked out. That doesn’t mean teams who previously had 100% control of their fate aren’t going to be frustrated when a spec design let’s them down.
On Monday, Harvick added fuel to the fire as is tweeted, “Is the caution out yet?”
Darlington Race Results: September 4, 2022 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Rodney Childers comments
“Complete bullshit… Was going to be a great night,” Rodney Childers, crew chief for Harvick stated via social media.
— Tweets Below Are Deleted —
“Lets put holes in the nose that will pick up every piece of rubber off the track. Let’s mandate 75% open grill area going to the rocker boxes. Let’s have a fan blowing air thru that hose to make sure the rubber reaches the headers.”
“Then once the rubber stacks up and catches fire-Then we will have the equivalent of a leaf blower blowing oxygen on the fire and see how fast it gets a lot bigger.”
— Tweets Above Are Deleted —
It’s unclear why the tweets above were removed.
“Issues like this could be fixed really quick, if the teams had control over their own cars. But, with spec cars, there are lots of red tape and layers in getting problems solved.”
Childers then brought in props to the discussion. On Instagram, Childers placed pieces of rubber on top of a piece of insulation. He then caught the rubber on fire and attempted to light the insulation itself.
The caption on the video read, “Rubber burns. Good insulation doesn’t.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiIwUw5AWDa/
Links
Kevin Harvick | Darlington Raceway | NASCAR
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