Unhappy Kevin Harvick Goes Off at Indy Road Course, Threatens Retaliation to Multiple Drivers, Including His Stewart-Haas Teammate
Kevin Harvick is frustrated. It’s understandable when you consider the 2014 Cup Series champion, who won nine times in 2020, headed into Indianapolis on a 63-race winless streak to run a road course he’s been vocal about in his opposition.
What happened to start Stage 2 only confirmed his disdain for the circuit when he got spun and dropped to the back of the field. Several minutes later, the 46-year-old driver told his team over the radio that he wanted names because he had retaliation on his mind.
Kevin Harvick gets wrecked to start Stage 2
Kevin Harvick stayed out of trouble during Stage 1 on the Indy Road Course. The same could not be said for multiple other drivers, including Chase Elliott, who spun and went sailing backward over the curb in Turn 1, and Chris Buescher, whose car caught on fire.
That all changed for Harvick on the restart of the second stage when the field headed into the treacherous first turn and the No. 4 car was in the middle of a four-wide sandwich, with Alex Bowman to his right and Austin Dillon and Ty Gibbs to his left.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver got the bad end of the deal coming out of the turn and got hit in his left rear by Austin Dillon and went for a spin. When it was over, he was facing the wrong direction, and the field had passed him.
Harvick threatens retaliation
Several minutes later during a stop in action, a frustrated Harvick radioed his team.
“I can’t believe we’re going through racing with a bunch of hacks like this,” he said. Crew chief Rodney Childers confirmed his driver was 100 percent correct. Harvick was then told there were five cars involved that resulted in a chain reaction of one car “clobbering” the other before it got to him.
“Good, tell me all five of them so I can wreck every one of them,” the angry driver said.
“The one behind you was the 48 (Bowman), the one behind him was the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), the one behind him was the 14 (SHR teammate Chase Briscoe), the one behind him I can’t remember,” his crew chief told him.
Day ends after another incident with Alex Bowman
Harvick’s choice of wording about “hacks” was interesting because that’s the term Alex Bowman capitalized on last year after Denny Hamlin called him that at Martinsville. What made it all the more interesting was what happened with 18 laps to go when Harvick and Bowman were involved in a crash.
Replays showed the No. 4 behind the No. 48 but it wasn’t clear whether or not Harvick had initiated contact before both cars went spinning. If true to his words from earlier, Bowman would have been his top priority. And we know he’s not afraid to retaliate on HMS cars. Just ask Chase Elliott.
Bowman finished 32nd and is bound for the playoffs with his win earlier at Las Vegas. Harvick finished a spot behind and still must win to get into the postseason.
And the frustration level goes up one more gear.
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