CONCORD, N.C. – It’s no secret Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick don’t like each other.
After Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400, that sentiment was reinforced.
After on-track issues between the two led to a heated confrontation following the conclusion of the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Sept. 18, Elliott and Harvick found each other again Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It started with Harvick turning Elliott into the wall as they exited the infield section of the ROVAL course into oval turn one, severely damaging the rear of Elliott’s Chevrolet on lap 55. Suddenly Elliott, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, was in serious jeopardy of not advancing to the next round of the playoffs.
On his team radio, Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustfason told Elliott that if they could wreck Harvick, that would lock the No. 9 team into the next round of the playoffs.
Elliott responded, “Don’t you worry.”
After multiple visits to pit road to try and repair the damage to Elliott’s Chevrolet, he was back on track but running at the tail of the field well behind the leaders. Eventually Elliott got lucky when the bumper cover from his damaged car flew off with 27 laps left, forcing NASCAR to call for the caution flag for debris on the track.
While all that was going on, Harvick was barely hanging on to a spot in the next round of the playoffs. Soon, that position would disappear in a cloud of smoke and flames.
After another caution flag for an incident involving Joey Hand and Corey LaJoie, Elliott lined up six positions behind Harvick for a restart with 14 laps left.
Elliott was quick to gain ground on Harvick, dispatching a few cars to find himself within a few car lengths with 12 laps left as they raced through the frontstretch chicane and towards turn one.
If Elliott planned on wrecking Harvick, onlookers never got the chance to find out. Harvick barreled into the first turn too fast and slammed head-on into the turn one barrier. Harvick’s car was destroyed and his shot at a championship was over.
After emerging from the infield care center, Harvick gave his side of the situation, though he left a lot open to interpretation.
“I just pushed it in there too hard and I got the tire locked up and I couldn’t stop it once I felt like I needed to go to get a couple spots back that I had lost, and I got the left-front locked up and I couldn’t get it to turn,” Harvick said of the incident.
When asked if the contact with Elliott was payback for Bristol, Harvick chose not to directly say one way or the other.
“Sometimes real life teaches you good lessons,” Harvick said.
With Harvick out of the race, Elliott needed only to bring his car home in one piece to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Post-race Elliott, rather than directly address the incident with Harvick, opted to offer a holiday greeting.
“As far as Kevin goes, just want to wish them a merry off-season and a happy Christmas,” Elliott said.
Rick Hendrick, the owner of Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro, is hopeful that the issues between Harvick and Elliott are over.
“I hope it’s over. We don’t want to race that way,” Hendrick said. “We want to just race. That’s not our style. Just go out and if a guy is better than you are, he wins. Just do your job and if you get beat you get beat.
“It never feels good to push somebody out of the way. A little rubbing or something, that’s OK, but just to wreck somebody, that’s not good.”
The Bank of America ROVAL 400 may be over, but the rivalry between Elliott and Harvick probably isn’t. With four races left in the season and Elliott in the playoffs and Harvick now out, there is still plenty of opportunity for another confrontation.
All that’s left now is to wait and see.