AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Harvick shrugged off a cheating scandal to show he’s still a legitimate title contender by winning the pole Friday for his final crack at making the Cup Series championship race.
As for what exactly happened with his race-winning car last week, Harvick didn’t offer any new information after claiming the top starting spot for Sunday’s race at ISM Raceway outside of Phoenix.
“I don’t build the cars. I can’t tell you what’s good and what’s bad. I just show up and drive the cars,” Harvick said.
His crew chief, Rodney Childers, said Stewart-Haas Racing modified the spoiler on Harvick’s car because other teams were already doing similar alterations. Childers is suspended for the final two races of the season and working at the race shop in North Carolina as Harvick tries to overcome a devastating penalty issued this week for what NASCAR determined was a blatant case of cheating.
Harvick won last weekend at Texas. When the spoiler was removed from his No. 4 Ford during an extensive inspection in North Carolina, NASCAR discovered the part had been altered.
Harvick leads the series with eight victories, but two were with illegal cars. His Las Vegas victory from earlier this year was disqualified, as was last week’s Texas win. That disqualification cost Harvick an automatic berth as one of the four drivers who will race for the championship next weekend, and Childers and car chief Robert Smith were suspended.
Harvick is still in contention to advance to the final four, and he’s a nine-time winner at Phoenix, where he won earlier this year.
“It’s more about people than it is about cars and we’ve got a lot of good people,” Harvick said. “You can’t drive a slow car fast and you can’t beat good people.”
Joey Logano, the only driver already locked into the final four, was not bothered by the accusations against Harvick’s team. He also said he’s not wondering if SHR, or others, have been cheating all year.
“Everyone pushes hard and it’s nothing new,” Logano said. “We like making a big deal out of it, a big stink out of it, but honestly it is part of our sport.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.