Kevin Harvick voices displeasure with Carson Hocevar, NASCAR over Harrison Burton incident

Kevin Harvick was not thrilled with Carson Hocevar or NASCAR due to the incident between the No. 77 and the No. 21 of Harrison Burton in Nashville over the weekend.

After the pair had been battling for a myriad of laps, Hocevar decided to show his frustration with Burton, right-rear-hooking him under caution in a shocking turn of events. Of course, wrecking someone under caution is a big no-no, and it’s something that Harvick was angry about following the Ally 400.

“So everything that I’ve taken in on this scenario is, I guess Harrison blocked the No. 77 and he didn’t like it, and under the caution he came up and NBC had a view of it where you could see Hocevar accelerate, and you could see the No. 21 drag the brake a little bit when he started hitting him, brake-checking him a little bit, and then Hocevar just spun him out. I was a little disappointed,” Harvick said, via the latest episode of his Harvick’s Happy Hour show. “I don’t like the wrecking under the caution. I don’t like the right-rear hook. I think there’s just certain places that NASCAR needs to draw the line.

“I really don’t like the under caution piece of it. I wish they would’ve black-flagged me, and parked me more times for doing that, because it’s just not the right way to do it. So, Hocevar got away with that one, in my opinion, so far, but I think it was definitely a missed call on the NASCAR side of it.”

At the least, Harvick can have a little bit of joy due to the fact that NASCAR penalized Hocevar following the recording of this week’s show. Hocevar was fined $50,000 and docked 25 driver points for violating the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct, NASCAR announced Tuesday evening. 

Additionally, the penalty drops Hocevar from 22nd to 24th in the standings, 181 points behind the playoff cutline. Effectively, it’s now caused Hocevar to need a win to get into the playoffs, even more than before the penalty.

Still, it’s disappointing for Harvick to see this type of behavior from Hocevar, but we’ve seen him act up in similar fashion in the past. Regardless, Harvick was just heaping immense praise on Hocevar for the way he’s been driving in the Cup Series, but that’s all changed due to his actions on Sunday afternoon.

Now, it’ll be up to Carson Hocevar to change the perception around him, but Kevin Harvick isn’t going to stand for actions like we saw from the No. 77 wheelman in Nashville.