An incident that saw defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick crash Sunday following contact with Jimmie Johnson in the opening race of NASCAR’s playoffs carried over to post-race when Harvick struck Johnson with a closed fist.
Kevin Harvick shoves Jimmie Johnson following Chase wreck
The defending Sprint Cup champion was upset after contact with Jimmie Johnson caused him to crash.
Harvick emerged from his motorhome in the drivers’ lot at Chicagoland Speedway to confront Johnson, who was standing in the vicinity. Johnson then pointed his finger at Harvick before walking away, while Harvick attempted to follow Johnson before his business manager and wife both restrained him.
The contentiousness emanated from a Lap 135 restart when Joey Logano shoved third-place Jimmie Johnson, whose car got loose and veered to the apron of the track. Johnson immediately corrected and moved back up on the racing surface where he then made contact with the rear of Harvick’s car causing bodywork damage and a left-rear tire to begin smoking. Harvick was leading the MyAFibRisk.com 400.
“I got a pretty good restart and the 22 (Logano) and 48 (Johnson) got a run, then I just held my line and the 48 slammed into the side of my door,” Harvick said. “That was pretty much it.”
Harvick was initially informed by crew chief Rodney Childers the damage was minimal and that the smoke was dissipating. Three laps later the left-rear tire lost pressure, sending the 2014 series champion spinning into the Turn 3 wall. The No. 4 Chevrolet sustained significant damage and Harvick immediately took his car to the garage for repairs.
After 57 laps in the garage, Harvick returned to competition. As he did, Harvick drove by Johnson’s pit stall pointing at the No. 48 team. Harvick also told his crew to inform him when Johnson was near him on the track.
“I assume he would try to find it is my fault,” Johnson said. “I just simply needed the lane to get back on the racetrack. By no means was I trying to do anything different. I’ve seen him on the flat working his way back up looking for a racing lane. That is what I was doing. I was on the bottom trying to get back up on the racing surface, and he was trying to pin me down and I had to get back up or else it would have been a hell of a mess.”
Harvick’s team, Stewart-Haas Racing, and Johnson’s, Hendrick Motorsports, have a technical alliance where Hendrick supplies SHR with cars and engines and shares data. The two organizations are closely intertwined with Harvick and Johnson de facto teammates.
“When you can consider yourselves teammates at times, teammates are supposed to push each other on restarts and not knock their doors in,” Childers said. “We just have to move on from it and go racing the next few weeks.”
Harvick finished 42nd, falling 22 points behind the cut line to avoid elimination in Round 1 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. While not insurmountable, the points deficit will be difficult to overcome with two races remaining.
A victory either next week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway or Oct. 4 at Dover International Speedway would guarantee advancement. Harvick said the situation isn’t a must-win, but said he needed to “try and win.”
Harvick finished the 26-race regular season with two wins and 10 second-place finishes -- the most by a driver since 1972 -- and led the circuit in top-fives, top-10s, laps led and average finish.
“We can win anywhere -- we could’ve won today,” Harvick said. “It’s just a matter of putting a couple of [races] together and being able to come back to Victory Lane.”
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