Kevin Harvick shares unpopular opinion on NASCAR caution controversy at Atlanta

NASCAR fans everywhere were disappointed by the overtime finish in the Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday at Atlanta, when the caution flag came out in the final lap of overtime.

Instead of a potential three-wide race to the finish, fans were simply informed that Christopher Bell had won.

“I guess we need to address the caution right off the bat,” Kevin Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “The race was fantastic and the caution being thrown there going into Turn 3, I think that people want to see the drivers race back to the checkered flag. But there’s just, there’s really no way around throwing the caution.”

While it made for a disappointing viewing experience for the fans, the late caution became a necessity after drivers in the middle of the pack began to make contact and spin around the track.

“We can’t have the guys driving through wrecked cars and debris fields like we have in some of those races, like you saw in the Xfinity race,” Harvick said. “They should have thrown the caution on Saturday. The Daytona 500 should have had the caution thrown. And unfortunately those are just things that are going to happen to keep the drivers safe.”

Harvick’s biggest beef with the caution flag on Sunday — much like many other drivers in the field — wasn’t that it came out. Rather, it’s that NASCAR hasn’t been consistent with its approach in the young 2025 season.

“It would have been better if we were consistent about it, like we talked last week ahead of time,” Harvick said. “We went rogue. And we went from the Duels to the Daytona 500 where we did the exact opposite from the officiating side of things.

“But I think the drivers probably stepped up and said, ‘Hey, this is not how this needs to go’ because of the fact that it’s OK until we do like we did with Austin Dillon and shove him through the fence at Daytona because nobody’s letting off the gas. And that’s what’ll happen. It’ll evolve to the drivers not letting off the gas.”

Bottom line: For Harvick the caution simply had to come out.

“I feel like it’s not popular, but the caution being thrown when cars are turning all over and nosing into the fence and hitting each other is a scenario that you have to throw the caution,” he said. “This one I felt like was done right.”