Kevin Harvick addresses William Byron's anger with Chase Briscoe over wreck in Brickyard 400

Kevin Harvick addressed William Byron’s anger with Chase Briscoe due to their wreck during the Brickyard 400 on the latest episode of Harvick’s Happy Hour.

“Let’s go back to Stage 2. This was with William Byron and AJ Allmendinger. This was a pretty bad accident that took place, and William Byron, this has been interesting, because at the start of the season, we saw so much momentum out of that group, a lot of wins, and it’s been a little bit more quiet,” Kaitlyn Vincie prefaced. “They haven’t been running poorly, by any stretch of imagination, but it’s been a little bit more of a quiet summer. What’d you see here?”

Harvick believes Byron’s frustrations with Briscoe is partly because of his string of disappointing finishes, after the No. 24 started the 2024 campaign on a torrid pace, accumulating three wins.

“Well, like I say this, this rewind button for me is very dangerous, and you know, I think when I hear William Byron’s interviews, he’s very frustrated, because he feels like his cars are running good,” Harvick started. “I think in this scenario, when they wreck here, he’s, as he put it, back there with the squirrels. He was very frustrated with Chase Briscoe. This wreck started, as you’ll see, Briscoe just came up the racetrack right here.

“I went back and looked and listened to the in-car. You could hear Briscoe lift once they got connected right here. But I thought he got tight. But you know, it sounds like he just came up the racetrack trying to protect that position, and Byron was already there, and when they made contact, he lifted. But you see these big shots, glad everybody’s okay, because those were big shots right there.”

Mamba Smith pinned some of the blame on another Stewart-Haas Racing wheelman: “He’s mad at Briscoe, right, for kind of using him up. But the No. 41, like [Ryan] Preece kind of stuck his nose in there,” he said. “And it wasn’t really —  it was a hole, but it wasn’t like, it was tight.”

While Harvick recognized Preece wasn’t innocent, it was Briscoe’s decision that took Byron out, putting him in a precarious position. While the No. 24 has struggled over the last month and chance, Harvick said to worry not, as these performances have been an abnormality, and not what we’ll see from Byron in the playoffs.

“That’s what ultimately caused the crash. Preece went in the middle and the, you know, the inside and outside car, not knowing he was in there, and that’s what started the crash. But that actually took everybody out. The thing that started that scenario was when the No. 14 and No. 24 made that contact and checked those cars up,” Harvick responded. “But William Byron, you know, they have the speed. Let’s not forget, we’re at a bunch of very unique race tracks right now, with Pocono and Indy and road courses, and got all these one off racetracks that we’re going to that we’re not going to race on in the playoffs.

“So, you know, I think some of these traditional racetracks, aside from the road course that we have in the playoffs that kind of shakes everything up, it really kind of allows for some unique scenarios.”

Alas, William Byron still has three wins, and he’ll be in prime position when the playoffs roll around, but the reigning Daytona 500 winner would like to have some more success, and build confidence going into another hunt for his first title in 2024.