BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kevin Harvick came to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend hoping he could perform magic again in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and sail to victory in a must-win situation in Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race and propel his Stewart-Haas Racing team into the Round of 12.
Unfortunately, a botched late-race pit stop knocked Harvick out of contention and with passing difficult in Thunder Valley, Harvick had little time to recover.
The 500-lap race brought plenty of attrition but not enough to allow Harvick to climb out of a severe points deficit from a fire at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway earlier this month and a crash last weekend at Kansas Speedway to challenge for his second NASCAR Cup Series championship.
After starting the race inside the top-10 and crawling his way slowly inside the top-five, Harvick headed to pit road following the 11th caution of the race, the tire changer, however, did not get the left-front tire tight and as Harvick exited his pit stall, the tire fell off forcing him to back up into his pit stall where the team completed service.
Harvick faded outside the top-10 because of the pit road issue and with just 56 laps to recover, he could only manage to drive back to 10th – more than eight seconds behind race winner Chris Buescher.
Adding insult to injury, during his final pit stop, Harvick entered pit road ahead of Buescher and had an opportunity to control the race for himself and contend for his third Cup Series win of the season.
“It just kind of goes with the whole year,” said Harvick after the race. “Nothing has gone right, really. The wheels literally fell off tonight.”
“It was pretty tough. We pitted in front of the 17 (Buescher), so just kind of the way the year has gone. Just went from having a chance to lead the parade to being a part of the parade.”
While Harvick seemed initially worried about whether he incurred suspension damage when the tire came off, the 60-time Cup race winner instead said it became difficult to pass.
“Just difficult to pass,” explained Harvick. “We went from having a chance to lead the parade to being a part of the parade,. The cars are way too fast in the corners. You can’t race.”
At times during his Stewart-Haas Racing tenure, Harvick has been critical of his pit crew, but Saturday night and despite all that was on the line, Harvick stayed away from criticizing his team members, but instead just chalk the situation up to bad timing.
“Yeah, they’ve done a good job, just bad timing,” Harvick mentioned.
Out of the Playoffs and not contending for a Cup Series championship for the first time since 2009, Harvick said he has no choice but to focus on putting his No. 4 Ford Mustang in Victory Lane over the next seven races.
“We wouldn’t do anything different,” said Harvick on focusing on winning. “We do that every week.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
