The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Harvick stripped of his berth in the NASCAR title race
CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> Kevin Harvick’s bid for a second NASCAR title suffered a massive setback Nov. 7 when he was stripped of his berth in the championship race because his winning car failed inspection after Texas Motor Speedway.
The discovery of an illegally modified spoiler, made during a detailed post-race inspection after the No. 4 Ford returned to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center following the race, negates the automatic berth Harvick earned into the final four. The rule violated states that spoilers must be used exactly as supplied from the manufacturer and not altered.
On top of losing his spot in next weekend’s 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, and Childers also was fined $75,000.
Harvick was docked 40 driver points, and StewartHaas Racing was docked 40 owner points as well. Harvick enters this weekend’s race at Phoenix fourth among the remaining eight playoff drivers, three points above the cutline. Should there be a tie for the final transfer spot, Harvick would not be eligible to use the Texas victory in the tiebreaking procedure.
Greg Zipadelli, vice president of competition at SHR, said the team will not appeal the penalties. Tony Gibson will be Harvick’s interim crew chief and Nick DeFazio will be interim car chief.
“We work tirelessly across every inch of our race cars to create speed and, unfortunately, NASCAR determined we ventured into an area not accommodated by its rule book,” Zipadelli said. “We will not appeal the penalty. Instead, we will direct our immediate focus to this weekend’s event in Phoenix and control our destiny on the racetrack.”
Harvick’s win at Texas was his series-leading eighth in 2018 and qualified him for Homestead along with Joey Logano. Now, three spots in the finale will be up for grabs Sunday in Phoenix.
Harvick won the 2014 Cup Series championship and went to Phoenix that season in a must-win situation to race for the title. He pulled it off and is a ninetime winner at Phoenix, including earlier this year.
Harvick has been in NASCAR’s finale three of the last four years.
The penalty is disastrous for SHR, which went into the third round of the playoffs with all four of its drivers eligible for the championship. Logano grabbed the first spot, which meant the best SHR could do was qualify three cars for Homestead. Now, SHR could wind up locked out of the finale outright if Harvick doesn’t advance past Phoenix. Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer are all below the cutline and likely need to win at Phoenix to advance.
The penalty against Harvick also closes a rough race for NASCAR, which erroneously penalized Jimmie Johnson moments before the race began. Johnson was sent to the back of the field because NASCAR believed his car failed inspection three times, but he had failed only twice.