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Kevin Harvick on Ty Gibbs, Toyota: 'I'm hitting the panic button'

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•07/16/24
Ty Gibbs
Feb 19, 2023; Daytona Beach, Florida, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Ty Gibbs (54) pits during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Following more struggles for the Toyota vehicles in this year’s NASCAR Cup Series, former driver and current broadcaster Kevin Harvick is sounding the alarm.

The latest incident was Ty Gibbs‘ engine blowing up on him when he was in contention at Pocono on Sunday. It was just the latest engine failure from a Toyota this season.

“I am hitting the panic button on this one, and that is the Toyota engines,” Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “Because we’ve seen the 11 blow up, we’ve seen the 20 blow up, we’ve seen the 54 blow up. We’ve seen a number of engine issues with the Toyotas, and I think it’s just, it seems sporadic, right? So they have been in high-RPM, shifting racetracks that it seems like they’ve showed up at.

“I would be panicked.”

First Christopher Bell blew his engine at Gateway, taking him out of contention in the Enjoy Illinois 300. Then Denny Hamlin blew his engine at Sonoma.

Finally, Gibbs lost his on Sunday in a race that he took the pole in and was competitive early in. He eventually slipped on a restart and had trouble working his way back to the front before disaster hit.

“It’s just so hard to recover on tracks like that, with Pocono, Indy,” Kevin Harvick said. “It’s so strategy dependent and you can have a fast racecar, but it takes forever to pass one car. So you’ve got to have all the pieces come together like the 12 did, where you don’t have any mistakes, you don’t have anything happen, you don’t slip up on a restart because of the time it takes to get past those cars.”

Of course, not having your engine blow up on you also helps. Say this about the Toyota engines: They get the job done when they’re humming.

That’s why the situation for Gibbs and company is so potentially dicey.

“The thing I go back to is they have speed,” Kevin Harvick said. “And you can tell that he knows he has speed with his interviews and things after the race. Ty knows that they have speed, he’s not worried about that. But I am worried about their engines.

“And I am worried if that sporadic blow-up comes at the wrong time in the playoffs. Been there, done that and all the sudden you’re in a bad position.”