Kevin Harvick praises Christopher Bell for Las Vegas moves, warns of NASCAR reaction

Kevin Harvick had some interesting things to say about Christopher Bell’s huge move during the NASCAR Cup Series Las Vegas race. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick reacted to Bell stopping at Chase Briscoe’s pit box to tighten a loose tire.

“I have to admit that I’ve never been through this scenario,” Harvick revealed. “I’ve never had this conversation in my life to stop in somebody else’s pit. I thought we did a pretty good job dotting the I’s and crossing T’s. But this is pretty heads-up. When you see the fact that the crew chief was able to tell him in the amount of time that he needed to be able to… And Christopher able to compute what he was saying in his head to get out of line, it was pretty chaotic to get himself in position and find a teammate’s pit stall.

“It’s within the rules, it’s a tail end of the longest line for pitting outside the box. But I didn’t know you could have another team actually pit your car, and I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s better than the wheel falling off. What about the guy who has one car? Is it fair to the guy that only has one car that doesn’t have a teammate to stop in their box? I don’t think it is.”

Christopher Bell explained stopping in Chase Briscoe’s pit box

Kevin Harvick then said there should be the DONE (Department of NASCAR Efficiency) committee. “The first thing I would do is the possibility of more rules, but the first thing we should do is talk about having less rules,” Harvick said. We should have less regulation in a lot of these departments. …If we have to make a rule for the rule, we need to think about the original rule.”

It was an unorthodox move by Bell and the No. 20 team, but it saved them a two-lap penalty and suspension of two crew members. After the race, Christopher Bell spoke to reporters about stopping at Chase Briscoe’s pit box.

“I didn’t know if whenever I got to any of the teammate’s box, I didn’t know one, where they were, and then if two, if there was going to be a car in it or not,” Bell said, per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “I saw the 19 (Briscoe) out the corner of my eye. I was pointing like, ‘I’m getting left. I’m getting left.’ Obviously, guys are coming out of their box. Fortunately, he wasn’t in there. I guess he was a couple of laps down at that point. Everyone gave way for me to get left and get into his box. I don’t know how much it helped, though, because I still had to go to the back. At least we didn’t lose a wheel.”