Harvick has no regrets over post-race shove

Harvick’s own outlook for staying alive in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs alive has brightened considerably at Phoenix, site of Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) and easily one of his best tracks. The task ahead is still a daunting one — though just 18 points off the top spot in the Sprint Cup standings, he has all seven remaining title-eligible drivers ahead of him.

Friday, though, talk centered on his “third man in” role in the Texas altercation and his suggested solution for heading off rumbles among crewmembers. Harvick may have had the best viewpoint of all for last weekend’s melee as the intensity rose among crews for Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon. As he leaned against the rear spoiler of Keselowski’s Team Penske No. 2 Ford, Harvick said he was content to watch the situation play out but seeing a familiar scene unfold prompted him to action.

After Gordon’s initial post-race complaint was lodged, Keselowski turned away with a deaf ear. Harvick then pushed Keselowski within Gordon’s reach, setting the wheels in motion for a full-fledged conflict.

“I have no problem with the way Brad races. I think he races hard and I think that’s what we’re all supposed to do,” Harvick said. “In those positions, you’d probably do the same thing yourself, but I think that the problem that I have with it is I’ve been in that situation with him before and had him turn his back on me and just walk off. I don’t think that’s the appropriate way to handle those types of situations.

“It just kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I reacted, and obviously didn’t really realize that it was going to ignite that, but all in all, it just kind of rubs me the wrong way when you have to just turn your back on situations and walk off and mumble your way off into no-man’s-land and not just handle the situation.”

Harvick referenced his two-year-old son, Keelan, as a new “measuring stick” for how he reacts to confrontation. While some fans have suggested that the shove intentionally stoked the Gordon-Keselowski conflict to better his postseason hopes, Harvick said that notion reads far too much into the story.

“These people don’t realize how dumb I really am,” Harvick said with a grin. “These people all think I’m way smarter. I think I’m lucky more than smart when these types of things happen. Like I say there are a lot of things stirred up with your competitors in the garage that are talking about things that are things other than their race car. That side of it is OK. But in the end it’s really not the perception that you want to send.”

While Harvick raised issues about pit-road tensions, he also offered a potential solution. The veteran suggested a post-race holding area for any number of cars where crewmen were prohibited. While the logistics for such a proposal might be tricky, Harvick said the practice would not be difficult to police.

“I think all in all, the hardest thing is having the crew guys get involved. That is really the biggest problem with the whole thing that I see,” Harvick said. “In my opinion you should park the cars in a fenced off area and if you have a crew member go inside that fenced off area your car is disqualified for the race. We can all get out of our cars by ourselves and take our helmets off and take our window nets down. I think that would solve a lot of problems. A lot of these guys are 280-pound linebackers that came from whatever school, professional football, baseball, whatever team. That part of it is not good.”

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