FONTANA, Calif. – Kevin Harvick’s attempt to win four straight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races took a major blow early in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.
After starting 10th, Harvick had climbed inside the top-five and was battling Kyle Larson for third when on Lap 37, the two made contact on the backstretch with Harvick losing control of his No. 4 Busch Beer Ford and pounding the outside retaining wall.
Harvick was able to limp his damaged No. 4 Stewart-Haas Ford Fusion back to pit road, where crew chief Rodney Childers directed the team during damage repairs.
The 2014 Cup Series champion was able to return to the race but remained multiple laps down and no longer in contention.
Larson’s crew chief Chad Johnston immediately radioed his driver after the incident criticizing Harvick for his intensity so early in the race.
“He’s a fucking idiot for racing you that hard that early in the race,” Johnston said on the team radio.
“He’s going to be mad, but I did nothing wrong,” Larson replied.
If Harvick was mad, it seemed he was holding the anger in and blaming himself for the crash.
Just before the start of Stage 3, Harvick was still discussing the incident with Childers and said the car “spun out” when he turned it to the right after Harvick collided with Larson.
After the race, Harvick explained the incident in detail – continuing to take responsibility for the crash.
“I went down to side draft and he was coming up and we touched, and it just knocked the thing to the right and spun out,” explained Harvick. “I don’t know that it’s his fault. I think that’s my fault for coming down the race track right there and trying to side draft and then as we touch it just came back up the race track. I was just trying to get a little too much right there.
“I knew the stage was coming in. I’ve just got to thank all of my guys. They did a great job on our Busch Beer Ford and it was just my fault back there.”
When asked if winning four races was too much to ask of Harvick or his team, he reiterated he just made a mistake.
“No, it’s not too much to ask,” Harvick said. “That was just a dumb mistake on my part, so it wasn’t too much to ask. The race car was there, it was just a mistake.”
Harvick who won Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix ended the day 35th overall, collecting just two points for his efforts and dropped from the lead to eighth in the standings, 46 points behind race winner Martin Truex Jr.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
