FORT WORTH, Texas – A crash caused by contact with Kevin Harvick apparently rekindled some old memories for Austin Dillon, who blamed the former Richard Childress Racing driver for the incident.
The crash knocked out Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet, which finished 37th after qualifying on the pole for Sunday’s rain-delayed AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
“(Harvick) tucked down to my door tighter than anybody did all night,” Dillon told NBCSN’s Kelli Stavast. “He knew how tight he was on my door, and that is why I got tight and slid up in front of him. He didn’t check (up), but he had the opportunity. He didn’t like it that the silver spoon kid was outrunning him tonight.”
That was a reference to the October 2013 truck race at Martinsville Speedway. After being spun by Dillon, Harvick said he was leaving Richard Childress Racing because of “these kids coming up and they’ve got no respect for what they do in this sport, and they’ve had everything fed to them with a spoon.” Dillon is the grandson of team owner Richard Childress.
After Sunday night’s crash, crew chief Slugger Labbe radioed Dillon to take down Harvick’s number and remember it next week at Phoenix.
In a postrace interview with Marty Snider, Harvick denied wrecking Dillon on purpose.
“Slugger says a lot of things that he shouldn’t,” Harvick said. “All in all there was no intent there. I like racing with Austin. We were on a restart, I got loose and hit the back of him.”
