Austin Dillon: Kevin Harvick didn’t like ‘the silver spoon kid outrunning him’

Old animosity between Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick came to the forefront after the two were involved in an incident during Sunday night’s Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Dillon was attempting to pass Harvick on the low side when his car slid in front of Harvick’s on Lap 263 of the 334-lap race. The resulting contact sent Dillon slamming into the outside Turn 4 wall, contact that Harvick called accidental while Dillon believed otherwise.

“He didn’t check [up], but he had the opportunity to,” Dillon said. “He didn’t like it that the silver spoon kid was out-running him tonight.”

Dillon’s silver spoon reference is a callback to comments Harvick made in October 2013 in his final weeks driving for the team owned by Dillon’s grandfather, Richard Childress Racing.

Upset following an on-track incident with Ty Dillon, Austin’s younger brother, during a Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Harvick said he was leaving RCR because “these kids (Dillon brothers) have got no respect for what they do in this sport and they’ve had everything fed to them with a spoon.”

On Sunday, Harvick complimented Dillon and stressed he didn’t deliberately wreck the 26-year-old driver. He merely couldn’t slow down in time to avoid tagging Dillon’s rear bumper.

“I just want to apologize to [Dillon],” Harvick said. “He kind of came up there and he slid in front of me and got loose and when he checked up I hit him again. That was not anything I wanted to see.”

Not everyone accepted Harvick’s explanation. Dillon’s crew chief, Slugger Labbe, immediately radioed Dillon after the crash telling his driver: “He flat-out wrecked you, man.” Then Labbe said Dillon should remember what happened, then insinuated Dillon should seek payback during next week’s race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Harvick essentially needs a victory in the semifinal round finale of the Chase for the Sprint Cup to avoid elimination. A win next Sunday would automatically qualify the Stewart-Haas Racing driver for the championship bracket of NASCAR’s playoff.

“Slugger says a lot of things that he shouldn’t,” Harvick said. “All-in-all, there was no intent there. I like racing with Austin and I like everything that they do and there was no reason to.”

Dillon contends he wrecked not because he got loose, but because of how Harvick raced him.

“(Harvick) sucked down on my door and got me tight,” Dillon said. “That is the reason I slid up in front of him and then he didn’t lift he just turned me.

“There are two more weeks left [for payback].”