Kevin Harvick spotlights common thread for NASCAR pit stop issues at Las Vegas

One thing that impacted the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas over the weekend was the number of infractions on pit road. There were several.

From speeding penalties to loose wheels, several teams saw their chances to win slip away. Kevin Harvick commented on the sheer number of issues that occurred.

“Really from guys that, you look at Denny Hamlin, you look at Joey Logano sliding through his box at the end of the race to take himself out of position,” Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “Ryan Blaney‘s team was a mess during the race.

“Every time he’d get close to the front they’d have a wheel loose or a caution would come out, whatever the situation was. This has just become the norm.”

Harvick explained what he thought was the primary issue was on pit road, given that two teams had wheels come off on the track and a third — Christopher Bell‘s squad — narrowly averted that same disaster by utilizing a NASCAR loophole of sorts.

“I think it really comes down to the jack being dropped as quick as possible because the pit stops are eight-and-a-half seconds, nine seconds,” Harvick said. “When the dowels don’t line up the wheel doesn’t get tight, it’s just a timing thing and these guys, all the pit crews, they do a great job but they’re right on the ragged edge.”

Two teams were penalized by NASCAR for losing wheels on the track: Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe. Christopher Bell had to double pit stop to avoid losing one himself.

“Kyle Busch hurt himself again,” Harvick said. “This has kind of been the MO of this team over the last couple years. When they have good days going — this week was on him, a speeding penalty and then the wheel fell off.”

Whatever the case, there were just a large number of issues that NASCAR penalized teams for at Las Vegas. Enough to be noticeable.

“Taking yourself out of contention, we saw the 48 pit under green, we saw Josh Berry have to back up and tighten some wheels,” Harvick said. “So we saw more cars than we could show and keep track of with the pit road penalties and things that were happening.

“But it was just constant, over and over and over. Now it’s week after week after week that you’re seeing all these things happen, and you have to be able to dot the Is and cross the Ts. Usually it’s that 22 (Joey Logano) team that’s dotting the Is and crossing Ts. This week, in contention with a seventh- or eighth-place car to win the race and slid through the box. So it’s all those moments.”