Kevin Harvick: ‘I’m not going to quit and roll over’

In explaining his decisions made Sunday, Harvick said pulling out of line because of his ailing engine was not an option because of the stakes involved.

“Obviously there are a few teams that questioned what (Harvick) did on a restart”, Helton said. The second you see a teammate retaliate in football, knocking an opponent to the ground there’s a penalty flag thrown and the move is generally frowned upon. As he did, he made contact with Trevor Bayne and Bayne’s auto went spinning.

Doesn’t matter, though. It’s a bad look for the champ, who already this Chase has shoved Jimmie Johnson, left without comment after running out of fuel at New Hampshire and then was accused by other teams of intentionally damaging his race-winning vehicle at Dover to avoid a thorough NASCAR inspection. “I am not going to throw stones because I don’t believe that’s the right thing to do”.

“Wow I just lost a lot of respect for Harvick. I didn’t even see (Bayne) until he was up beside me”.

While Jeff Gordon didn’t like how the CampingWorld.com 500 concluded, he wasn’t certain Harvick wrecked Bayne intentionally.

Driver Kevin Harvick has been accused by fans and drivers of intentionally engineering a massive pile-up during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on October 25 at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama (video below). My auto was still maintaining speed. And subsequently out of the Chase.

Kraft: “Now the 4 is saying he’s not going to do the same because he’s on the verge of the Chase deal.”

Harvick insisted that he was just trying to get out of the way. I never even really saw the 6 (Bayne) auto until he was by me and doing what he was doing. Timmy (Fedewa, spotter for Harvick) don’t know. He thinks they might get out of the way. He’s not sure. They’re right on the verge.

Bayne: “As long as the 20 knows the situation.”

“I feel like our pit crew is on point and we’ve had speed in the cars, those have really been the only two things that have been 100 percent”. Kraft: “Be ready. 10 away (from restart zone)”.

“What a roll Joey Logano and Team Penske are on”, said Tony Pauly, director of advertising and brand management for Bosch Automotive Aftermarket North America. I mean, you have to try.

I hope everybody came out of Talladega relatively unscathed. He’s going to stand behind what he believes in and that’s fair and I don’t think anybody can knock him for that.

“I did the best I could on the restart”, said Harvick, the 2014 Cup champion.

Formula 1’s USGP on NBC earned a 0.7 overnight rating, equal to last year’s race at Circuit of The Americas but down from the earlier NBC F1 races this year from Monaco and Canada (1.1 and 1.0, respectively).

NASCAR said Tuesday that it found no evidence of shenanigans on the restart; Harvick (or anyone else) wasn’t penalized for his actions.

“NASCAR makes the calls”.

Harvick also had this to say when asked about the possibility of being black-flagged before the restart.

NASCAR knew well before Sunday that the chances of the field successfully racing to the finish without wrecking were slim to none, so it altered the green-white-checkered flag rule for one particular race – and even that one attempt at finishing under green was useless. That being said, putting Talladega in the position where it decides the fate of drivers who have worked so hard to get to this point in their season appears grossly unfair.

“From their perspective, I can understand their frustration of not being in the Chase or whatever the circumstances might be”, said Harvick, who understood why the drivers were angry. It’s like I got a dagger in my side, but I can still walk. “You know what I mean?”