A postrace penalty after his victory at Texas Motor Speedway cost Kevin Harvick his crew chief for the final two races of the 2018 season.
But the punishment won’t be a deterrent: Harvick fully expects he will be thrust into a situation without Rodney Childers again.
“It better not be the last time that he gets suspended because I just don’t think you are pushing it hard enough if you’re not,” Harvick said Tuesday night during his “Happy Hours” show on SiriusXM’s NASCAR channel. “That’s part of racing. Not something I’m going to apologize for at any point in my career just because of the fact I want my crew chief doing what he has to do to make my car go as fast as he can. Try to work within the rules and find the gray area you can and win some and lose some.”
Childers was benched for mounting an illegal spoiler on the No. 4 Ford at Texas, which was the eighth and final win of a career season for Harvick. The infraction was discovered during a midweek inspection at the R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, and NASCAR stripped the championship benefits of the win.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver dominated NASCAR’s Loop Data statistics, finishing first in driver rating, fastest laps, fastest on restarts, laps led and green-flag speed.
Harvick also ranked first with 1,990 laps led -- the third time in five seasons with Childers that he has topped that category.
During a 2017 episode of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast, Childers said the team’s speed had led to many trips to the R&D Center for extra scrutiny in 2014-15.
Childers lamented the team choosing to back off in practice and qualifying in 2016 to avoid NASCAR attention.
But on Tuesday’s show, Harvick said the attention -- and sometimes resulting penalties -- were a good thing.
“It’s not going to be the last time my crew chief gets suspended,” Harvick said. “That’s just part of what we do, and if you’re going to be one of the good teams, you’re going to have to push the limits. You’re going to have to be on the verge of getting in trouble all the time.
“You have to push the envelope.”