NASCAR admitted it made an officiating error during Sunday’s Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, a non-call that benefited Kevin Harvick, who went on to finish second in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.
NASCAR admits officiating error; Kevin Harvick should’ve been penalized
Kevin Harvick should have been penalized after his crew lost control of a tire during a pit stop, NASCAR acknowledged after Sunday’s Cup Series race at Texas.
Harvick made his final pit stop on Lap 291 while the race was under green flag conditions, and during that stop a Stewart-Haas Racing crew member appeared to lose control of a tire that came off Harvick’s car.
NASCAR determined, however, that the crew member maintained control of the tire and did not issue a penalty to Harvick, who went on to finish second to race winner Kyle Busch. But upon reviewing the incident post-race, NASCAR acknowledged it missed the call and Harvick should’ve been penalized.
”It was a judgement call, and after conducting a post-race review of the incident an uncontrolled tire penalty for the 4 car would have been correct,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller said. “We missed that call.”
Ryan Blaney was penalized earlier in the race for an uncontrolled tire that occurred during a pit stop on Lap 43. He then had to serve a pass-thru penalty, which requires him to come back down pit road but not stop. Blaney would go to finish fifth.
Harvick had one of the faster cars on Sunday, winning Stage 1 by nearly 11 seconds. But he couldn’t overcome several miscues on pit road -- including a slow stop, a wheel not fastened securely and a penalty for too many crew members over the wall -- to win. He finished less than a second behind Busch, who scored his first win of the season.
Adam Stevens, Busch’s crew chief, said he had not seen video of Harvick’s pit stop.
“I was really focused on what we were trying to do,” Stevens said. “But that’s something that when the situation like that happens, we will evaluate that, try to get clarification so that we know what the rules are going forward.
“Generally [NASCAR is] pretty consistent about that. But not having seen it, I can’t tell you exactly if I would have called it a penalty myself or not.”
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