Kevin Harvick slams conspiracy over late Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace dustup leading to Denny Hamlin win

During the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, the race was sent into overtime by a late caution. Kevin Harvick doesn’t want to hear conspiracies. Bubba Wallace sent Kyle Larson into the inside wall off of Turn 2, and that ultimately gave the race to Denny Hamlin.

Of course, NASCAR fans are always quick to jump onto the conspiracy theory bandwagon. Ryan Blaney had just passed Tyler Reddick on the other side of the track. Bubba was a lap down. Larson was 170+ laps down. Yet, he made a pass on the 23 car and then checked up.

The reason Larson checked up was to avoid Reddick. The 45 car hit the wall and Larson thought it was best to just stay out of the situation entirely. Only problem, he had more or less cut Wallace off and then lifted like a bad driver on the highway.

NASCAR fans thought Bubba did it on purpose to help Reddick or, somehow, Denny Hamlin, who was even further back. There were other NASCAR fans who thought Larson did it on purpose to help William Byron.

Kevin Harvick is tired of it all. Here is what he had to say on his Happy Hour podcast, by first explaining the situation.

“So, it’s a lot of people are going to say, why would you do that?” Harvick explained. “Well, guess what, if you can make those repairs faster, and, I think back to 23 when we had that massive crash there on one of the restarts and wiped out half the field it seemed like.

“Something like that happens in the race and you don’t get back out on the race track; this guy lost the regular season championship by one point last year. We’re talking one point. And that’s why the emphasis is put on getting that car back out on the race track. Because you do not know how these races are going to work out.”

Kevin Harvick slams conspiracy theories

Then he slammed the conspiracies. Seriously, what do people think happens during races?

“I think a lot of times, people make up all this crap thinking we’re smarter than we are,” Harvick said with a smile. “We’re not that smart. In that moment right there, you just want to get to the end of the race and it be over with. Bubba’s a lap down, and Kyle’s 160 down.”

Look, Kyle Larson made a mistake. I think we can all be big enough to admit that. He had a damaged car and was looking for just one extra point, though he would never get that point. When he saw one of the leaders hit the wall, he had the right instinct but at the wrong time.