A lap 226 altercation saw Matt Kenseth wheel-hop the right-rear tire of his Dollar General Toyota while diving under Harvick in Martinsville’s tight first turn. Contact between the two sent Harvick spinning into the outside wall, doing significant damage that forced him to the garage for more than 40 laps while repairs were made.
The steam boiling from Harvick’s Chevrolet paled in comparison to the smoke rolling from his ears. “Happy Harvick” was anything but happy Sunday, and he didn’t care who knew it.
“(Kenseth) won’t win this championship,” he vowed. “If we don’t, he won’t.”
While insisting that the crash was purely accidental, Kenseth said he understood the anger.
Kenseth
soldiered on after the crash, overcoming cosmetic damage to finish a solid sixth.
He currently holds the final transfer spot to the championship finale at Homestead
Miami Speedway, just two weeks away. Harvick, meanwhile, stands on the brink of
elimination, 28 points away from a transfer. It will almost certainly take a
win – Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway or next week in Phoenix – for Harvick’s championship
dream to survive.
“It’s
definitely not the way we wanted it to all play out,” said Harvick Sunday. “I thought
we had worked our way to where we needed to be (at Martinsville). Everybody was
so worried about us starting in the back and we wrecked at the front. It’s unfortunate.”
Post-race
histrionics notwithstanding, the Stewart Haas Racing driver knows there can be
no thoughts of revenge at either Texas or Phoenix. With his championship hopes on
life support, Harvick and his Rodney Childers-led team must be fully focused on
the task at hand; winning one of the next two races. Like Brad Keselowski at
Talladega, Harvick is capable of authoring a Game Seven moment, but only if he
puts Sunday’s hard feelings aside.
“That’s
the great part about this format,” he admitted. “We’ve got two more weeks (at)
two racetracks we can win on.”
For
Kevin Harvick and the Budweiser Chevrolet team, the choice is clear.
Do
you want to fight? Or do you want to win?
Well said.
ReplyDeleteWell said but;
ReplyDeleteHe's perpetually angry at Kyle Busch, he wrecked Hamlin out of the championship at Homestead a few years ago, he's always angry at his pit crew. Harvick always blames everyone else but himself for the problems he is involved it. Yet, no one ever ever tells him to grow up. Maybe it's time someone flat out told him to.
You obviously know very little about Kevin Harvick. He takes responsibility all the time when he does something wrong. If you ever listened to his in-car audio, you'd hear it. Get educated before you post next time!
DeleteBut you can't dispute anything I wrote, of course Harvick is the man. Getting educated is a matter of finding the truth and using facts, all you used is car audio not facts. He NEVER apologized to Hamiln, and his goal was to wreck Busch which he did.
Deletehttp://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/22/818517/hamlin-harvick-trade-some-post.html
Umm, when did Harvick wreck Hamlin out of a championship?
Delete"Hamlin had a run-in with Greg Biffle on Lap 24 of the 267-lap race which left his front splitter damaged, and Harvick was assessed a late-race penalty for speeding on pit road."
DeleteAgain, when did Harvick wreck Hamlin out of a championship?
*shrug* Martinsville...you either escape...or you don't.
ReplyDeleteObvious a bitter 18 fan. You should worry more about why your driver can't win or finish races. At least when the 4 had a bad day it was mechanical not from crashing like the 18
ReplyDeleteWell said. I don't expect Harvick to do anything until Homestead, unless he ends up a lap down in the next two races, then I think he'll do something. Which is really sad considering it truly was an accident. Kenseth got lucky he didn't have severe damage too.
ReplyDeleteHarvick has every right to be angry. He was taken out of the race, and potentially the Championship, as an innocent bystander (or racer in this case). However for him to insinuate that if Kenseth is running for the Title at Homestead and he isn't then he's going to do something about it is ridiculous. Kenseth made a mistake that could have ruined his day as well. It wasn't intentional by any stretch of the imagination. If it was then Harvick has every right to extract vengeance on the 20. Otherwise its just typical Harvick bluster.
ReplyDelete