Kevin Harvick rips Denny Hamlin for 'not in it mentally' quote after Kansas

Kevin Harvick doesn’t understand why Denny Hamlin said he was “not in it mentally” after the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Kansas Speedway. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick shared his thoughts on Hamlin’s interesting quote.

After the race, Hamlin said: “I’m not in it mentally, I can tell you that. There’s a lot of wires crossed, bolts loose at the moment. But what can you do? I’ll just do the best that I can to drive the car and do my part.”

Hamlin’s quote led to Harvick throwing his card in the air and asking why he would say that on live TV. “I give up,” Harvick began. “Why in the world would you say that? Why in the world would you get out of the car and say that? Part of what you do as a race car driver is you have to be a poker player. When you have that driver’s suit on, you have to play the game and you can’t open your mouth to put yourself in positions to be in a worse spot than you already are.

Kevin Harvick was blown away by Denny Hamlin’s comments

“Even if you think it, don’t say that. It just blows me away that you would say that you’re not mentally into it after the race and just say… I just couldn’t imagine ever saying that. Never point the finger at something like that even if you’re not mentally into it.

Despite Hamlin saying he was “not in it mentally” he finished eighth in the Kansas race and is one step closer to advancing in the Round of 8 of the playoffs. When talking about the race on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said if his pit crew had performed better, his team would have won on Sunday.

“We should have won the race,” Hamlin said. “We had the fastest car, but every time we get to the top three the caution comes out and we restart 15th, 20th. Can’t show how fast your car is when you’re back of the pack. All you can do is just keep making positions back up to the front over and over and over and eventually, you just run out of laps and someone else wins.”