Following the myAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the big story was the on-track contact, followed by off-track confrontation between Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.
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.
Logano, who played a small role in the contact on the restart, stated on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that he had doesn’t have much of a reaction to the skirmish between the pair of drivers as he’s staying focused on his own program.
“It is what it is,” he added. “That’s what seems to happen in the Chase. Emotions seem to get fired up pretty quick and I don’t really have a reaction. I’m not surprised. I’m not anything. It is what it is.”
Logano has been at the other-end of Harvick’s anger before, having had a post-race confrontation with Harvick a couple seasons ago at Pocono Raceway. Logano was questioned about Harvick’s attitude and whether there’s more bark than bite, but didn’t offer much of a comment as he wants to stay out of it.
“I don’t want to be a part of this one, let me tell you right now,” he stated. “I’m just happy to be out of the drama. I’ve been in it plenty long. I want to be out of the drama and focus on my race car, so sometimes it’s best off just to keep your mouth shut.”
As a result of the contact with Johnson and the flat tire, Harvick enters this weekend sitting 15th in the standings, 22 points behind the 12th spot. If Harvick is unable to get back into the top-12 within the next two weeks or win, he will be knocked out of the championship. It’d mark a huge upset for the Chase Grid as many people had the defending series champion, who has two wins and 22 top-10s on the season, moving forward to the next round.
“It’s the way this whole playoff Chase system works when you’re knocking out cars. You want to knock out the fastest cars you can,” Logano commented. “It’s not a bad thing. Obviously, the 4 car is one of the fastest cars every week. They led the points for most of the season, so you know they’ve got speed everywhere they go.”
While many people have placed Harvick in a “must-win” situation to advance, Logano doesn’t think it’s that bad as he feels Harvick can “still get in by points” if he can have “two really good races”.
“If he can win, I expect him to be aggressive, but I would expect that before,” he added. “The way we’ve raced the whole season up to this point was racing with nothing to lose, so we’re kind of used to that a little bit. Now there’s something to lose for some of us, but there are still some cars out there that have nothing to lose and we’ll go for it like we did before, so I wouldn’t expect anything different there.”
Though while Harvick has found himself in this particular situation, it’s not something that Logano is focused on. He presumes that he’s focused on his own program, and making sure that he is one of the final four drivers once we get to Homestead in Florida.
“That’s the main thing – as long as we focus on what we need to do (with) whatever happens throughout the rest of this Chase, (it) is what it is with everybody else,” he commented. “We just have to make sure we get to Homestead. But if you look at the big picture obviously you want the fastest cars out because it gives you the best chance when you get to Homestead, but I’m not gonna change to do anything different out there. I’ve still got to get myself there. That’s priority one is getting our team to Homestead.”
