Kevin Harvick reacts to scary pit road moment involving John Hunter Nemechek, Daniel Suárez at Bristol

Last week at Bristol, the race itself was a snooze, but Kevin Harvick had to talk about this near-miss on pit road. A wheel came off the No. 42 car of John Hunter Nemechek and almost collided with a tire changer on Daniel Suárez’s crew.

Pit crews have to deal with dodging cars, potential fires, tires rolling around, and so much more on pit road. On Sunday at Bristol, that danger was made very apparent.

John Hunter Nemechek left his pit box, and his wheel came off almost immediately. It then rolled, faster than his car, down pit road. Just a split second separated the rear tire change from disaster.

Kevin Harvick couldn’t believe it. The NASCAR champion talked about the moment on his Happy Hour podcast this week.

“This could have been a lot worse, you’ll see the lug nut fly off the car right there, rolling down the pit boxes right there,” Harvick said as he watched the replay. “As he continued to drive off, the wheel and tire came off the car to outrun his car and take a beeline straight towards 99 of Daniel Suárez right there.”

Continuing, Kevin Harvick talked about how this happens. With these Next Gen wheels, it is a single lug nut. That lug nut lines up with five pins to secure the wheel. If all of those pins aren’t secured, bye-bye wheel.

“These pit stops are, you know, that wheel and tire just never got the dowels on the pins there on the back of the wheel that put the wheel into place,” Harvick said. “Those guys knew it, they were waving their arms, and unfortunately, with how fast the stops are, you kinda have to go by feel, and obviously, when they dropped the jack there, the tire was gone.”

Kevin Harvick guiding son Keelan in racing

When Kevin Harvick isn’t in the FOX booth calling races or on his podcast, he’s doing the dad thing. Lately, his son Keelan has started to really work his way up through the ranks in stock car racing.

Keelan was on pole for the Cordele Motor Speedway CARS Tour Pro Late Model race. He was able to finish P5 overall. At 12, Keelan is young and eager to learn. He’s done a great job so far in Limited Late Model and Pro Late Model races.

There are a few kids in that 12-15-year-old range that are worth paying attention to. Spire Motorsports has Tristan McKee signed to a development deal. He is seriously talented. Of course, there are always young teens making headlines, and few end up developing into Cup Series winners. Very few.

When it comes to Keelan, I feel confident he is going to develop into a worthy NASCAR driver. It won’t be long before we see Keelan and Brexton Busch and a few of these other young drivers in the Truck or Xfinity Series. Imagine that.