Kevin Harvick addresses Kyle Larson penalty at Watkins Glen in NASCAR Playoffs
Kevin Harvick addressed Kyle Larson’s vehicle interference penalty during the latest episode of his Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour show, elaborating on what all went down at Watkins Glen.
“William Byron, currently 25 points above the cut line. Just above him is his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, who had a vehicle interference penalty,” Harvick’s co-host Kaitlyn Vincie prefaced. “What did you make of what you saw here? Kyle obviously took full onus of that.”
Evidently, the potential for a penalty was something Harvick was keeping an eye on with Larson, as the No. 5 wheelman was having trouble all afternoon, but NASCAR had to step in once Larson actually went too far over the line with Erik Jones’ pit-box.
“We saw Kyle get the penalty during the race for interference,” Harvick said. “So basically, you’ll see this orange line that is painted on a diagonal in the pit box before, that gives NASCAR a reference, to be able to understand where the car is, to call the penalties. There’s a box right outside of that that NASCAR uses for reference as well, but Kyle’s way to the right, into the pit box of the No. 43 car there. We heard him talk on the radio during the race, talking about being on the left side of the car, with having to turn right into the pit boxes.
“He thought he was being conservative, and wound up, still wound up deep into the No. 43 pit box right there. So, easy call for NASCAR. Those lines don’t even matter when there’s not a car in that pit box, but those lines are put there to protect those pit crew guys, to give them space to work. That’s something that’s been there for a couple of years now.”
Continuing, Harvick actually revealed teams can challenge that ruling if they believe NASCAR made the wrong call, while reminiscing about the way drivers used to handle another team getting too close to their pit box when he was a driver.
“During the race, you know, if you feel like somebody impeded your pit stop, you can actually send those videos up to NASCAR if they didn’t catch it, and see what they think of those calls,” Harvick added. “… If you felt like those pit crew guys were too far out on pit road, you’d brush them. You definitely would brush them, and try to knock tires out. Absolutely.
“If those guys were too wide, and you thought that they weren’t giving you space, I mean, you’d definitely make them think twice about coming around that car while I was coming to the pit box. Not games that need to be played, and NASCAR kind of put their foot down on all that.”
Alas, NASCAR has changed a lot since then, and they put the rules in place to protect crew members from injuries on pit road. Kyle Larson was burned by it at Watkins Glen, but at least he learned a cold, hard lesson over the weekend.