Kevin Harvick weighs in on Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse wreck, assesses blame

Kevin Harvick is weighing in on all of the major storylines following the Daytona 500, including the incident late in the race between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano.

It’s been hotly debated whether Stenhouse Jr. or Logano should receive the lion-share of the blame for causing a wreck late in this past Sunday’s race that took out some major contenders, including Kyle Busch. While Harvick believes Stenhouse Jr.’s block was certainly a little tight, the former Cup Series champion thinks Logano could’ve been a bit more patient with the No. 47.

“It was a tight block,” Harvick started, via Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “Joey tried to put his car in a hole that wasn’t really big enough. By the time he tried to back out of the decision that he had made, the No. 4 car was just shoving him through the back bumper into that position. It was a close, tight block. It checked that line up. There’s just never a hole big enough for the No. 22 car to go through right there. You see the flames come out of the pipe, but at that point, it’s too late. He’s already into the left-rear quarter-panel of the No. 47. There’s no hole to go through at that point.

“I don’t know if he got a little bit frustrated when Ricky threw that tight block, but he was definitely being very aggressive right there with the nose of his car. I think as he got closer to the quarter panel, Ricky, I mean — you can get sucked into those positions. When you’ve got somebody pushing you from behind, and I think it just, you know — I think it was a bad decision by Joey, as he tried to shove the car in there and then he couldn’t back out of it.”

The real disappointment for Harvick was Logano had a car more than capable of winning the 500 once again, but he let his emotions get the best of him. If he waited a bit, Harvick believes the No. 22 could’ve been a major factor.

“Joey definitely had the best car. I felt like it was the fastest,” Harvick added. “I felt like he obviously does a great job with his pushing and blocking and all the things that it takes to be great at super-speedways. They controlled the race, or pushed themselves back to the front of the race, at pretty much any time that they wanted to.

“He was going to get back to the front. I think that there was enough laps left at that point. I feel like he might have gotten frustrated, and tried to be pretty forceful right there. I think if he goes back and looks at it, I think he thinks he could’ve been a little bit more patient to just wait to try to put himself in position, because he had a car capable of doing it.”

It was a disappointing ending for Joey Logano in Daytona, but he’ll head to one of his better tracks this weekend, with a trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway on the docket. Kevin Harvick will be keeping a keen eye on the No. 22 once again, as he’ll be hoping to contend for the victory in back-to-back trips to Georgia.