NASCAR

Kevin Harvick Should Let Matt Kenseth Slide This Time

By Ryan Pritt on October 30, 2014

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Kevin Harvick had some pretty strong words for Matt Kenseth after an accident between the two on lap 227 at Martinsville left Harvick’s car beat up, eventually leading to a 33rd-place finish. Kenseth meanwhile, rallied to finish sixth. When the dust cleared, Kenseth found himself in fourth place in the standings, a couple of points to the good of the cut line. Harvick meanwhile, is currently dead last of the eight competitors remaining in the Chase, 28 points back of Kenseth.

After his car was repaired on Sunday, Harvick came back on the track, found Kenseth and made his day much tougher. Harvick brake-checked Kenseth to slow his momentum and caused some damage to the front of Kenseth’s car.

The original accident occurred when Kenseth got into a corner too hard and slid into the left-rear corner of Harvick’s car, sending them both spinning. Kenseth, however, was able to avoid any significant damage while Harvick’s car made hard impact with the wall, eventually leading to a finish of 43 laps down.

The message at the end of the race was concise but clear.

“Yeah, he won’t win this championship,” Harvick said of Kenseth. “If we don’t, he won’t.”

Even Kenseth knew he had made a big mistake, calling Sunday’s race, “one of the lowlights of my career.” He also said he’d understand if Harvick made good on his promise of retaliation.

“I don’t blame (Harvick) for feeling like that, to be honest with you,” Kenseth said. “It was a mistake. He was an innocent bystander at the wrong place at the wrong time. I totally understand how he feels, I totally understand why he would say that; I totally get it. He knows it’s a mistake, too, but that doesn’t really help him. I don’t blame him. He got taken out of the race for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

But for the sake of both Harvick and Kenseth, as well as the other six drivers still in the Chase, here’s hoping that cooler heads prevail. Harvick has never been one to back down from a confrontation, either on-track or off, but this time he needs to let it go.

In as deep of a hole as Harvick currently is, he’s in no position to get tangled in any other accidents, thus increasing his deficit. Most likely, Harvick is going to need a win at either Texas on Sunday or at Phoenix the following week to advance to the championship race at Homestead. The focus of the entire No. 4 team needs to be on winning races, not wrecking Kenseth.

Secondly, Kenseth was nothing but apologetic after the race, and while he’s correct in saying his intention won’t help Harvick now, Kenseth’s reputation does need to come into play a bit here. Kenseth has historically been cool and calm on the racetrack and has avoided drama for the most part. There’s no reason to think anything intentional happened on Sunday on Kenseth’s part and mistakes happen. It just seems an unfortunate coincidence that one of Kenseth’s few on-track mistakes cost Harvick big at the worst possible time.

Then there are the rest of the drivers in the field. On Sunday, Brad Keselowski was almost collected in a retaliation shot when Brian Vickers wrecked Kasey Kahne after the two had been involved in a prior incident. Whether or not Vickers was justified is debatable, but had Keselowski, who unlike the other two is still in the Chase and battling for a championship, been swept up in an incident like that it would have been unimaginable.

Right now, the stakes are too high for revenge, not only for Harvick and Kenseth, but for everyone else. If Harvick is one to hold on to a grudge, there are 26 races before the Chase starts next year in which to deal with Kenseth. But now is not the time and Texas is not the place.

Ryan Pritt is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @RPritt, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.