Kevin Harvick: No penalties from final Talladega accident

The first was aborted by crashes.

Kevin Harvick’s vehicle struggled to pick up speed on the restart, triggering a multi-car accident. Denny Hamlin, leading in points coming in, was involved in a flapping escape hatch fiasco before the “caution flap”. “It was kind of like raining (beer) out there”, said Logano. “Dreams do come true I guess”.

Runner-up Earnhardt Jr., meanwhile, continued to differentiate himself from the legacy of his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won ten times at Talladega and was invariably ornery after a narrow loss, particularly in big races.

Harvick had an ailing engine and knew his Chevrolet would struggle to accelerate on a restart at the end of the race. “I’m more proud of the drive I had (Sunday) than the two wins this year”. With the change to the number of attempts the week prior, many drivers, teams and fans felt as though NASCAR was making up rules as they were going along.

On lap 119, Earnhardt received a penalty for a problem on a pit stop.

“We got shuffled out. That was amusing. A lot of good stuff happening out there today”.

A great crowd. Fans from 22 countries and 49 states. As the caution lights came on a celebratory cheer erupted from the fans mingled together in the infield back-stretch at Talladega all assumed Earnhardt Jr had won.

Surviving Talladega and advancing to the third round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has rejuvenated Brad Keselowski, who likes his chances at the three tracks in the Eliminator Round. That was probably a little bit my fault, my responsibility.

“If I were a driver, I’d be looking for anything that would support how I felt”, NASCAR Chairman Brian France said on NBCSN’s “NASCAR America” show.

“They can look at it a hundred different ways, but you can’t quit”, Harvick said. A roof hatch flap doomed Denny Hamlin.

At least two drivers accused Harvick of slowing and causing the wreck on objective so he would finish well enough to advance to the next round of the Chase.

But deciding motive has always been a murky business. His falling back on the restart, then, isn’t entirely suspicious, but it seems to an outside observer that the contact with the #6 Ford of Trevor Bayne could’ve been avoided entirely, nearly as if Harvick had turned right into him. No doubt Harvick benefited from a quick yellow.

NASCAR officials reviewed video of the incident after the race and concluded that there was no evidence that Harvick did anything wrong.

The bigger issue here is whether a race should end under a green flag no matter what. “I crawled and crawled and crawled and got back into the top three, finally into second”.

“Joey Logano didn’t have to do anything to Matt Kenseth, except he knew Matt Kenseth was going to be a strong competitor for the championship at Homestead, so he eliminated him”, Busch said. “It was one of those days where everything went well until the very end until the bottom fell out on those lap couple of restarts when it cooled off. It has a broken exhaust pipe or something”. Earnhardt was unable to race Logano for the victory once the caution was called.

So on this day, Logano was twice lucky. Did he mistime a block on Kenseth and Bayne ended up being collateral damage? They formed a line around the top.

“We have to keep this dream rolling”, Logano said. “It’s a performance business”. Kenseth, who has been furious with Logano for a week, left Talladega displeased with Harvick’s late-race tactics.

Not since the 1990 First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway has the result of a NASCAR race been under such a cloud of confusion and frustration on all parties – made worse by the fact this race was the final race in the Contender Round, which would see four of the remaining 12 Chase drivers eliminated before next weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

“We have confidence”, Logano said.

“We’re in a situation through the Chase we didn’t have to win but our job is to win; that’s what Roger Penske expects of us”.