LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Kevin Harvick was a man on a mission in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
His mission was short lived after Harvick’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford blew a tire on Lap 68 and hit the Turn 1 wall leaving the Stewart-Haas Racing driver with a 38th place finish dropping him from first to seventh in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings.
Scoring just one point with his finish on Sunday and his radical drop in the standings could be an early season indicator of how important stage points will be as the NASCAR playoffs near.
Heading to Vegas, Harvick had won three of the four early stages in the previous two races combined.
Before the crash, Harvick said he informed his team that he had developed a vibration in the car and they hoped to ride it out until the completion of Stage 1 at Lap 80.
“It started vibrating about four or five laps there before it blew out, and I was just trying to ride it to the end of the stage there,” said Harvick. “Obviously, it didn’t make it.”
After a poor qualifying effort on Friday afternoon, Harvick quickly bolted from his 19th starting spot to move into the top-10 by Lap 40. Continuing his charge through the field, Harvick was hovering inside the top-six when he triggered the second caution flag of the afternoon.
“All in all, our Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford was running good,” he said. “We were just too loose right there. It’s not like we were even tight, so it either just cut the tire, or came apart or melted the bead.”
While uninjured in the crash, Harvick was quick to point out the slow response from NASCAR’s safety team, which this year has a partnership with American Medical Response in an effort to expand the capabilities of NASCAR’s medical support model and enhance on-track incident response.
“The worst part was the medical response,” added Harvick. “It took them forever to get to the car. I thought we made that better, but obviously, we haven’t.”
Announced in early February, AMR will position state license doctors and paramedics in a chase vehicle along with two NASCAR Track Services team members and immediately respond to an on-track incident at every Cup Series race this season.
What’s to be determined is whether Harvick’s comments were warranted or was he just poking the bear agitated about his outcome in the third race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
Time will tell.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
