Violation costs Harvick spot in NASCAR’s final 4

Kevin Harvick’s bid for a second NASCAR title suffered a massive setback when he was stripped of his berth in the championship race after series inspectors found his winning car from Texas Motor Speedway had been deliberately altered to give him a performance advantage.

NASCAR said Wednesday night it believes Harvick’s spoiler was intentionally offset to the right to give the Ford an aerodynamic advantage when he drove through the corners at Texas.

The illegal spoiler was not found until the No. 4 Ford received a thorough inspection at NASCAR’s Research and Development Center when it was returned to North Carolina after Sunday’s race. An inspector at Texas thought the spoiler looked off, but Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said it had to be removed from the car. Once that happened, it was “100 percent, as black and white as it gets,” Miller said.

The penalty negated the automatic berth Harvick earned into NASCAR’s version of a final four. In addition to losing his automatic berth in the Nov. 18 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick must also close out the final two races of the season without crew chief Rodney Childers and car chief Robert Smith. Both were suspended for two races. Childers also was fined $75,000.

Harvick was docked 40 driver points, and Stewart-Haas Racing was docked 40 owner points as well. Harvick enters this weekend’s race at Phoenix fourth in the playoff standings, three points above the cutline.

Defending NASCAR champion Martin Truex Jr. and his crew chief will move to Joe Gibbs Racing next season after their race team, Furniture Row Racing, folds in two weeks.