Should NASCAR have penalized Kevin Harvick by taking away his Las Vegas win?

Each week, SB Nation’s NASCAR reporter Jordan Bianchi answers your questions about the latest news and happenings within the sport. If you have a future mailbag question, email jordanmbianchi@gmail.com.

Kevin Harvick gets to keep his win, but doesn’t get any credit for it because something was wrong with his rear window and NASCAR penalized him. It seems like NASCAR is trying to have it both ways where it will penalize a team, but also not take away the win because that’s “not how they do things.” It sounds simple, but why not just pull the win if the car wasn’t compliant? Or am I being too naïve?

--Tim

That is the juxtaposition of the NASCAR’s penalty structure. It wants to have a deterrent in place where teams are compelled to work within the rulebook, yet also won’t utilize the biggest hammer it has to ensure compliance — completely stripping a win when a situation like Harvick’s arises all because it wants fans to recognize who won upon the checkered flag waving.

To say the policy is archaic is an understatement. It dates back to a time when communication wasn’t instantaneous and fans lacked access to news with a push of button. The effectiveness of this course of action was long ago neutered.

In the case of Harvick, the penalties handed out Wednesday may be of little consequence as he’s already virtually assured a playoff berth. The only way the sanctions will carry any bite is if the loss of the seven playoff points he earned but were taken away, ends up being the difference between advancing to the next playoff round and being eliminated. Otherwise Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing can collectively shrug their shoulders knowing the benefits of winning outweighed the risk of getting caught.

Is NASCAR really now like golf where fans can report infractions, forcing NASCAR to react? Is this really what we want to see happen?

--Kelly

While posters on Reddit are rightfully getting a lot of credit for their detective work that unearthed Harvick’s rear windshield having a dip, let’s pump the brakes on worrying whether NASCAR is becoming golf where viewers could call-in and report rules violations.

Because whatever viewers are spotting at home then posting screenshots of online, those within the garage have not only likely seen the same thing but are already analyzing the significance and devising ways to emulate on their own cars. You can also be certain when a team sees a part of a car askew, it is also sharing this information with NASCAR in an effort to induce penalties. There some within the industry who contend it was someone working for a team that first noticed one of Chase Elliott’s crew members discreetly pulling tape off the rear spoiler of the No. 24 car last fall, then posted the video on Reddit to draw attention to the misdeed. Elliott, like Harvick, was subsequently, penalized.

This is NASCAR in the modern day and age, where secrets never remain secret for long and the subterfuge takes many forms. Be it divulging pertinent info on a message board, hacking encryption codes to obtain key data, or even team personnel masquerading as fans to shoot up close photographs of rivals’ cars.

Last year the Toyotas look unbeatable, but now it’s Kevin Harvick in a Ford who everyone is trying to catch. So am I wondering what the big difference is that Harvick is now so much better than everyone? It all really have to do with NASCAR changing how its inspections car or is there more to it?

--Ian

A more thorough technical inspection process has helped narrow the gap between the three manufacturers -- especially Ford, which has the oldest model among the three -- and in addition to limiting the margins crew chiefs can work in. Speculation persisted last season the Toyota teams had found something related to the rear suspension, aiding Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch continually separating themselves from the field on the track. Such an advantage is now negated to some degree.

But it cannot be overstated how much of an undertaking Stewart-Haas Racing went through when it switched from Chevrolet to Ford prior to the 2017 season. Gone was the intricate familiarity of how each tweak would alter performance to the point where Rodney Childers, Harvick’s crew chief, instinctively understood precisely what adjustment he needed to make. A crew chief possessing that knowledge base to lean on is an invaluable resource.

Then there was the work that went into actually constructing the cars where the parts and pieces on SHR’s fleet of Chevrolets weren’t all compatible on the Ford body style. That conversion took a lot of manpower and time; energy that couldn’t be focused solely on finding improvements and increasing overall speed.

It is no coincidence as SHR and Childers gained familiarity with its new manufacturer through last season, Harvick started mirroring his customary form where he ran up front, led laps and was in contention for wins. Particularly in the playoffs where he recorded six top-five finishes, including snapping Truex’s seven-race winning streak on 1.5-mile tracks at Texas Motor Speedway in November. A victory that saw Harvick clinch a spot in the Final Four championship by running down, then passing Truex over the closing laps.

And in retrospect, Texas and how Harvick achieved that win appears to be the shot across the bow signaling what was to come -- even if his latest triumph has an asterisk next to it.