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Say it ain’t so, Joe!!

DRIVERS WONDER IF HARVICK’S BURNOUT HINDERED INSPECTION
By Kenny Bruce | NASCAR.com | October 06, 2015 at 07.45 PM

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Was it a preventive measure or nothing more than another long, smoky celebration?

Kevin Harvick’s dominating victory in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway took the Stewart-Haas Racing driver from the brink of elimination in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and put him squarely into the Contender Round of the 10-race playoff.

His celebratory burnout, which concluded as the back of his No. 4 Chevrolet made contact with the wall, has raised questions about damage done to a winning vehicle before it is loaded up and transported, by NASCAR officials, back to the sanctioning body’s research and development center in Concord, North Carolina.

“I did?” Harvick said when asked about the incident during Tuesday’s Chase Contender Round Media Day gathering at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “I didn’t even know.”

Told that some believed the contact was intentional and a way to circumvent NASCAR officials discovering anything amiss, Harvick seemed amused.

“I knew how to knock my car back into compliance by rubbing it up against the wall,” he said, grinning.

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Whether Harvick was on the level or simply going with the rumor of the day, drivers have taken similar measures in the past to hide automotive trade secrets.

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski said when asked if drivers have intentionally damaged their cars after winning.

The reason, he said, is simple.

“Because of the way the tech (inspection) process works.

“The cars aren’t (inspected) the same way at the track as they can be … at the R&D Center,” the Team Penske driver said. “It’s been going on for a long time. I’m not making any accusations. … It’s not anything new to this sport.

“I’ve definitely blown tires out. I think every driver has done something to do some kind of damage to their car.”

NASCAR officials inspect each car three times during the course of a race weekend at the track – the initial inspection before practice gets underway, again prior to qualifying and a third time before the start of the race.

The race winning entry, runner-up and a random selection are also inspected at the track following each race.

Typically, those three cars are then transported to the R&D center for a more detailed inspection that is done each Tuesday.

“You don’t want to discredit anyone’s win because what he did was really, really impressive,” Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said. “But obviously, as all the other competitors, whoever doesn’t win each week wants to make sure they’re on a level playing field with whoever did win.

“Me, going forward, I would like to see some kind of way of insuring that our cars all stay intact for the R&D Center because right now, the R&D Center is kind of a moot point if guys tear up their cars.”

JGR teammate and fellow Chase competitor Carl Edwards, who finished 15th at Dover, said he didn’t see anything related to Harvick’s post-race celebration.

“I don’t know what happened there exactly,” Edwards said. “I’ll say this, that car was extremely fast and it’s a shame they tore it up. A car that fast, you don’t want to tear it up.

“They’re performing very well and you’re going to have to beat those guys. They’re getting it done.”

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The consistency and the speed shown by Harvick’s team during the last two seasons have been impossible to ignore. And it’s what most teams trying to beat the defending series champion have tried to attain for themselves.

“That’s what was good about the 4 car last year and that’s what’s been good about them this time,” Richard Childress Racing driver Ryan Newman said. “He had two failures (at Chicago and New Hampshire) and then a complete success. Questionable but complete. … I don’t need to say anything more.”

No matter the driver in question, Newman said, “I don’t think destroying a race car is at all respectful to anybody. I’ve never personally done it, never had the need to.”

It’s a constant tug-of-war, the battle to push the envelope and work in the ever-shrinking gray areas of the rulebook without getting one’s hands slapped. A team might be doing something that isn’t specifically outside the rules, but if it’s working, you don’t want to give officials the opportunity to reel your team back in.

“NASCAR’s really smart, and the teams are really smart, and they’re constantly battling each other to outsmart each other,” Hamlin said. “So it’s always a game, and the game never stops from when you leave the shop until you get to that R&D Center.”

Harvick, safely into the next round, isn’t fretting over all the chatter. His team won, he celebrated, and it doesn’t get much simpler than that.

“The thing about it now is people expect that,” Harvick said of the post-race burnout. “ … Back in 2003 was the first time that the rear tires blew off the car at Indianapolis down the frontstretch. That’s not something new. It’s just something that’s been fun.

“These things are hard to win and I enjoy celebrating and (I) am going to burn the tires off.”