Kevin Harvick and Erik Jones will begin their playoffs with DNFs after wrecking on Lap 147 Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The wreck started when Harvick lost his right-front tire in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and shot into the outside wall.
Jones then ran into the back of Harvick.
Harvick, who won at Las Vegas in March, entered the playoff opener as the No. 2 seed and with a series-leading seven wins. He had led 14 laps.
“Well there was something wrong from the time we put the tires on,” Harvick told NBCSN. “It’s like Russian roulette every time you put these piece of crap tires on and try to drive around the race track. One time it’s tight, one time it’s loose, one time they’re blistered. We had a great car and then you put a set of tires on and you can’t even hardly make it through the field.”
Goodyear’s Stu Grant addressed the tire situation, saying Goodyear had “not had any complaints about inconsistent tires.”
“Actually our performance has been pretty darn consistent,” Grant continued. “I would have to say the conditions are extremely difficult aren’t they? The heat in the race track makes it very slippery and it makes it very important to get the car setup right. I think if you are off a little bit, the heat and the slippery race track will exaggerate that.”
Grant added: “It’s the same thing that we saw a little bit yesterday in practice. We saw a few right-front blisters and we’re talking about the inside shoulder on the right-front tire. We saw a couple of those yesterday in practice. We worked with the teams to try to get the load off the inside shoulder off the right front. That’s where the heat is. Everybody has been talking about the heat. Let’s face it, 100 degrees is way different than 60 degrees back in March.”
Jones is participating in the playoffs for the first time. He won the pole but had not led any laps.
“It’s unfortunate, we didn’t have the best handling DeWalt Camry today … but we were going to finish top 10 no matter what,” Jones told NBCSN. “Nothing Kevin can do and nothing we can do unfortunately. Not the situation we needed to be in.”
