TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — The crew chief for Kevin Harvick insisted he didn't cheat and race conditions caused Harvick to become the first driver disqualified at Talladega Superspeedway since 1972.
Harvick lost to Ryan Blaney at Talladega on Sunday in a drag race to the finish line. The margin of victory was 0.012 seconds and Harvick was credited with a second-place finish in the final superspeedway race ahead of his retirement at the end of the season.
Some two hours after the race, NASCAR disqualified Harvick, saying the windshield fasteners on the No. 4 Ford were not secure in post-race inspection. The disqualification dropped Harvick from second to 38th — his first last-place finish of the season — and stripped him of all stage points earned Sunday.
Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief Rodney Childers chalked the loose windshield up to rough racing conditions for 500 miles and not cheating in a since-deleted social media post.
“There have been times I’ve got caught doing something I shouldn’t have. ... got DQ’d for the car buffering in the draft all day and some windshield bolts vibrating out. My guys had silicon on the threads and gobbed on the tip. Still came out. Not sure what else we could do,” Childers wrote Sunday night on X, formerly Twitter. The post was deleted by Monday morning.
It was the first disqualification of a Cup driver since May 7, 1972, when the restrictor plate fell out of Marty Robbins' carburetor on his Dodge.
Even before the disqualification, Harvick's winless streak in his final season stretched to 43 races dating back to last year. Harvick was eliminated from the playoffs after the round of 16.
He had joked the fans might have torn the Talladega grandstands down if he’d won, but settled for just not crashing.
“That would have been great. Talladega has been so up-and-down through the years,” Harvick said. “We’ve had some great moments and some bad moments. The last superspeedway race and we went out with everything rolling, so that’s a good thing.”
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