Sounds like Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott didn’t exactly get everything worked out last week…
If you remember back to last Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol, the race ended with Kyle Larson in Victory Lane after a crazy sequence of events between Kevin Harvick and defending Cup Series champion Chase Elliott.
With just a handful of laps to go in the final race of the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Elliott and Harvick were battling for the lead, with Kyle Larson breathing down both their necks.
Harvick’s #4 car got into the left side of Elliott’s #9, leaving Chase with a flat tire and no shot at winning the race.
INSANITY#ItsBristolBaby pic.twitter.com/7BxDZa4HF7
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 19, 2021
After Elliott pitted for some fresh rubber and got back on track, he patiently waited for Kevin Harvick, who was racing for the lead with Elliott’s teammate Kyle Larson, and blocked Harvick so that Larson could pull away with the win.
Needless to say, Harvick was all kinds of pissed off – and let Chase hear about it after the race.
The boys are talking. The boys are shoving.
IT'S BRISTOL BABY. pic.twitter.com/EIghd7Sc8s
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 19, 2021
Harvick called the move from Elliott a “chicken shit move,” while Elliott claimed that Harvick pulls those kinds of moves all the time and he was finally sick of it.
"It was a 🐓💩 move there at the end … We're racing for the win at Bristol." — @KevinHarvick has OPINIONS pic.twitter.com/oEh2QOZ3Ma
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 19, 2021
"It's something he does all the time. He runs into your left side constantly …" — @chaseelliott on @kevinharvick's moves at @bmsupdates. pic.twitter.com/wuUSGtRqK6
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 19, 2021
After some pushing and shoving on pit road after the drivers got out of their cars, Elliott and Harvick eventually disappeared into Elliott’s hauler to try to work things out.
Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick post race confrontation. pic.twitter.com/IEhLYYvFjS
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) September 19, 2021
So were they able to smooth things over?
Doesn’t sound like it.
Before tonight’s race at Las Vegas, Harvick was asked about his conversation with Elliott – and he compared it to trying to talk to his 9-year old son Keelan.
“It was like I was talking to Keelan. It’s identical.
It’s 100% the exact same scenario. They get hung up on one thing and you can’t speak to them about the broader picture of how the whole thing works.
It was like speaking with a 9-year old. So I have good experience with it, because that’s a daily process.”
Kevin Harvick says his talk with Chase Elliott last week was like talking to his 9-year-old son, Keelan: pic.twitter.com/5Wj5VDUAMd
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 26, 2021
Harvick also said that it was the most mad he’s been in his racing career:
“Like I said, it was a chickenshit move.
I’d rather be wiped out than have some shit like that happen. It was a 9-year old temper tantrum over a situation that was put into place from the other vehicle that wiped you out, took your chances from winning the race.
Like I said, you can’t have it both ways. It can’t go both ways. That’s just not how this deal works.
I don’t care if you’re the most popular driver or not, you can’t race everybody, side-drafting, bouncing off their doors and then slam into them.
That stuff all comes full circle in this deal, and has a funny way of teaching you.”
“I don’t care if you’re the most popular driver or not, you can’t race everybody, side-drafting, bouncing off their doors and then slam into them. That stuff all comes full circle in this deal."- Kevin Harvick
(Oh, and the glasses did survive) pic.twitter.com/Nostp7P2r6
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 26, 2021
For his part, Chase says he’s not worried about it – and if Harvick wants to pull the same move on him that he pulled last week, he’s fine with it:
“I care less about this confrontation than I ever have any other one in the past…
They can do whatever they want. Nothing that I say or do is gonna stop that. Whatever they want to do is fine with me and we’ll address it when it comes.”
Chase Elliott on fallout of the confrontation with Harvick and whether there will be raced in a similar way to the way he raced at the end of Bristol: “I care less about this confrontation than I ever have any other one in the past.” pic.twitter.com/qwkTdp0yh1
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 26, 2021
Chase may say that he’s over it, but something tells me this feud isn’t going to just go away quite that easy.
The two will get their chance to have it out on the racetrack very soon in tonight’s race, and I’ll be glued to my TV watching for that #4 and the #9 to find each other on the track.
Getcha popcorn ready, because I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing more fireworks from these two.