By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
The quest for four wins in a row ended early for Kevin Harvick at Auto Club Speedway in the Auto Club Speedway.
Shortly after green flag pit stops on lap 39 in the middle of the first stage, Harvick was racing for position with Kyle Larson. As both drivers were coming off the second turn, Harvick went down on Larson, but the No. 42 car went back up on Harvick. As a result, Harvick went into the outside wall before sliding down the backstretch.
“I went down to side draft and he was coming up and we touched, and it just knocked the thing to the right and spun out. I don’t know that it’s his fault,” Harvick stated.
“I think that’s my fault for coming down the race track right there and trying to side draft and then as we touch it just came back up the race track. I was just trying to get a little too much right there. I knew the stage was coming in.”
However, Larson was confused as to why Harvick was racing him that way early on.
“We were racing really hard and I was better than him in three and four and he was better than me in one and two. I would side draft him down the front stretch and he would side draft me down the back stretch and I don’t know if he was just coming down to side draft me or what but we made contact and it spun his car to the right. So, you never want to make contact with anybody
Ultimately, Harvick took the blame for the incident.
Because of the incident, Harvick was placed under the damaged vehicle policy. When Harvick made his way down pit road, the No. 4 crew began to work on the car. The team made several trips down pit road to fix the damage resulting in two laps lost to the field.
However, NASCAR went to the pit box to see what time of bear bond the team used to fix the damage. NASCAR found that the team used an aluminum-infused duct tape to fix the damage.
Despite the hype surrounding Harvick going for his fourth consecutive win, Harvick was not disappointed.
“No, it’s not too much to ask. That was just a dumb mistake on my part, so it wasn’t too much to ask. The race car was there, it was just a mistake.”
Harvick finished the race in the 35th position, nine laps down. Harvick sits eighth in the points, just 46 points behind leader Martin Truex Jr.