Kevin Harvick reacts to Ryan Blaney blaming Christopher Bell for massive wreck at Las Vegas

Kevin Harvick has watched as Ryan Blaney is off to a tough start in 2025. The Team Penske wheelman decided to take out some frustration on Christopher Bell over the weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, blaming the Joe Gibbs Racing star for his misfortune.

During the final stage of the Pennzoil 400, Blaney was involved in a multi-car wreck on Lap 195. Immediately, the former Cup Series champion came on the radio to pan Bell, “Doesn’t have any regard for anybody,” Blaney claimed. Harvick tried to make sense of the entire situation on the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.

“This started going into Turn One, and it started between the No. 99 (Daniel Suarez) and the No. 2 (Austin Cindric). The No. 99 was under the No. 2 car, and the No. 2 just drove over his nose. Daniel lifted. They barely touched. He drove on the apron, came back up the racetrack, and it stacked that whole bottom lane up. By the time they got to the exit of Turn Two, they were right here, four-wide. You see the No. 99 right behind them. To me, it looks like the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney) was paying attention to the No. 20 (Christopher Bell) coming up the racetrack, because the No. 20 was coming up the racetrack,” Harvick stated.

“I don’t know if he realized there were three cars out there. I think Ryan knew there were 2 cars out there, but I think he was probably paying attention — trying to figure out how to keep from getting run over by the No. 20, and they just ran out of room. I think that’s just one of those scenarios where the stack-up started in Turn One, and by the time they got Turn Two — this was the second wreck, by the way. [Ricky] Stenhouse was spinning out below them, and that was all a result from that stack-up on the bottom lane.

“So, there were a lot of things that happened prior to this wreck that got all that piled up, and nobody was lifting at this point. But I honestly think — I don’t think the No. 20 was going to come up all the way. But he was not giving them any room. And Ryan, I think, was watching the No. 20 car and just wound up on the front bumper of the car on the outside of him, and they crashed.”

After seeing the replay, Blaney changed his tune a bit, and provided Bell with some grace for his role in the matter. Still, the frustration is piling up for Blaney and his teammate Joey Logano, and Harvick believes that’s contributed to some fire from Team Penske through the first month of 2025.

“They definitely have a little bit of frustration to go along with the speed of their car, because in the end, you have to be able to get the results to go with this,” Harvick added. “You look at the No. 22 car (Joey Logano), I mean — they’ve led laps. Been in contention. Have absolutely nothing to show for it in the results column. Now, in the points column, their score and stage points, their lead in laps are putting themselves in position to overcome that. The part that you hate as a driver and what’s frustrating as a driver for Blaney and Logano, especially yesterday, was they had cars that probably could have been in contention to win the race.

“Logano had control of the race, and then had the mistake. Blaney, I mean, he just had so many things happen that were not his fault. Had the practice crash where the right-rear tire blew out. You know, the pit road issues. Then, you know, he definitely could’ve done something different to prevent this problem. But I think that was more of a racing deal and everybody running out of room more than anything. But in the end, he did drive over the guy on his right side, and the crash happened. But I don’t think it was anything egregious.”

Alas, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney have started slow in the past, and they’ve gone on to win championships in those seasons. Kevin Harvick knows better than anyone the NASCAR Cup Series campaign is a marathon, not a spring. Expect the Team Penske duo to get it together over the next few weeks.