Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Since making contact during last week’s MyAFibRisk.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway and having a post-race altercation, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson haven’t spoken to each other.
During Sunday’s race, Harvick had a left rear tire go flat and hit the wall at lap 139, following contact with Johnson on a lap 135 restart. For the restart, Harvick would restart 2nd on the outside, with Johnson third and Joey Logano fifth. Logano would push Johnson on the restart, causing Johnson to go below the yellow line. Johnson would then move up the track to get back in line, getting into Harvick and pushing him up.
Following the event, Johnson went to talk to Harvick post-race, with Harvick giving him a shove. Harvick would try to get another shot in, though was held by a team member. Johnson said on Friday at New Hampshire that he went to the motorcoach in hopes of talking out the incident.
“I’ve been on the flip side of that before and although I wasn’t happy to see whoever it was, it meant something to me and I appreciated the fact that they came to my bus to see me,” he commented. “That is all I was trying to do there.”
Johnson added that he wasn’t surprised at how upset Harvick was, and as he “knew good and well going over there that he wasn’t going to be in the best mood”.
“It was just important to me to try and make contact with him and try to talk to him,” he added. “Based on experiences that I’ve had in the position that it has put me in. That is what led me to going over there.”
NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell announced Monday on Sirius XM Radio that Kevin Harvick would not be penalized for hitting Jimmie Johnson following the Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
“That is emotion coming out when the stakes are really high in the Chase,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve got a reigning champion who finds himself in a tough spot … really needing to win (to advance), so you understand the frustration. You don’t like to see what happened, but from our standpoint that’s just pure emotion when the stakes are high and knowing how important it is to go out and win a championship.”
Speaking at New Hampshire on Friday following qualifying, Johnson stated that the pair haven’t talked while Harvick stated that he doesn’t have a lot to say about it as he’s “here to race and do what I have to do to do what I need to do in the next two weeks”. Harvick would go on to say, “I don’t look back. I just do what we have to do to focus on what we need to do looking forward. We are not going to use you guys to make threats. I can do that myself.”
Johnson still deems the on-track incident itself simply as a “racing incident” in trying to get back up on the track off of the apron.
“Unfortunately, that contact took place. It just sucks for those guys,” he commented. “I mean I feel for Kevin. I feel for Rodney (Childers, crew chief). I feel for the Stewart-Haas folks, for Tony (Stewart), Gene (Haas) that is not the situation that any of us wanted to have happen. Unfortunately, it’s racing there was a lot going on on that restart and we had the contact.”
Moving forward, Johnson doesn’t know what to expect when he and Harvick begin racing each other hear on out as “there is no telling what will end up taking place”.
“I think that is the exciting part about this Chase and the way you can advance, the way you can win to carry on and the intensity that it brings,” he added. “So, it’s definitely going to be an exciting Chase for everyone and right now everybody is focused on us, but who is to know after this weekend what conflict on track is going to be the next story.”
