If Kevin Harvick has anything to do with it, Matt Kenseth will not win the 2014 Sprint Cup championship after Kenseth accidentally crashed into Harvick Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
2014 Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500: Kevin Harvick vows Matt Kenseth will not win championship
Kevin Harvick was fuming following an accident with Matt Kenseth that left him in danger of being eliminated from the Chase.
Chris Trotman
Racing for position on Lap 223 Kenseth overdrove Turn 1, drifting up into Harvick, who then spun into the wall. The contact was significant, with Harvick’s car sustaining considerable front-end damage including the radiator. He immediately went to the garage for repairs before returning and finishing 33rd.
“He won’t win this championship,” Harvick said. “If we don’t, he won’t.”
Kenseth received minimal damage and continued on after pitting. After finishing sixth, Kenseth called the incident an accident and apologized.
“I don’t blame (Harvick) for feeling that way honestly,” Kenseth said. “It was a mistake. He was an innocent bystander and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I totally understand how he feels and I totally understand why he would say that. I totally get it. He knows it was a mistake too, but that doesn’t really help him.
“I don’t really blame him. He got taken out of the race for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The apology did little to soothe Harvick, who had struggled in qualifying but raced his way from 33rd to sixth.
“I mean, definitely thought that we had worked our way into where we needed to be,” Harvick said. “In a good position and wound up back in the fence.”
The accident was especially damning to Harvick, who came into the Chase for the Sprint Cup as a prohibitive favorite to win the championship. He fell 33 points behind leader Jeff Gordon and 28 behind Kenseth, who is in the fourth and final transfer position to the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Two races remain in Round 3, next Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and Nov. 9 at Phoenix International Raceway. If Harvick is to advance, he will need a victory in either race. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver is winless at Texas, but has won three of the past four Phoenix races and five overall.
“The good thing about this format is you have two more weeks and two race tracks that we can win on,” Harvick said. “Everybody was so worried about us starting in the back and we wrecked at the front. Unfortunate.”
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