Kevin Harvick addresses Chase Briscoe, massive NASCAR penalty

Kevin Harvick knows what Chase Briscoe needs to do after being hit with a massive penalty from NASCAR. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick shared his thoughts on Briscoe being penalized 100 driver points and 10 playoff points for modifications to the spoiler of his No. 19 Toyota.

“I guess we don’t know the whole scenario other than what NASCAR said. Obviously, the team is going to appeal the penalty,” Harvick said. “It’s a massive penalty because it has put Briscoe 45th into points. …That puts them in a position to where they’re going to have to win and they expect to win anyway.

“With the way that the year has started, it is a long ways from the Daytona 500 pole and the success that they had. But when you go back to the Daytona 500, you qualified on the pole, and we saw some searching around the roof hatch a little bit. NASCAR didn’t say or do anything, but when you qualify on the pole for the Daytona 500 and your car is intact, you’re going back to the R&D (Research and Development) Center. They took that car back to the R&D Center and ultimately found something they didn’t like about the Briscoe car. So it will be interesting to see how all this plays out as we go through the appeal process.”

Kevin Harvick shares thoughts on Chase Briscoe and his crew chief

Along with Briscoe losing driver and playoff points, his crew chief James Small has been suspended for four races, and Joe Gibbs Racing was fined $100,000. Briscoe is new to the team after driving for Stewart-Haas Racing for the last four seasons. This means he’s working with a new group of people, including a new crew chief.

“They’re going to learn a lot about each other really quick,” Harvick said about Chase Briscoe and James Small. “That’s how these scenarios go. We’ve talked about this in the preseason, we’ve talked about this after the Clash, and how important it was for Denny Hamlin and those guys to get off to a good start. Briscoe had a decent start.

“…But I think for Briscoe and James this is really going to test who they are and who they develop into being because of the fact they’re going to go through so many questions, so much adversity be so far behind. All we have to do is listen to the radio and we’ll be able to tell how that is going. I think it’s important for those guys to take a deep breath and figure out how to work through this and stay focused.”

Briscoe and Joe Gibbs Racing’s appeal of the massive penalty will be heard the the National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Wednesday, March 5.