Harvick says he didn’t realize he was going to ignite fracas with shove of Keselowski
Kevin Harvick said Friday that he didn’t realize his shove of Brad Keselowski was going to start a fracas.
Jeff Gordon confronted Keselowski after the race following a three-wide move that Keselowski made. The move, which was for the lead late in the race, cut Gordon’s left-rear tire down after he and Keselowski made contact.
Gordon was trying to get to Keselowski, but was blocked by members of Keselowski’s team as he attempted to talk with him. As Keselowski was on the outside of the group of people, Harvick pushed him towards Gordon, who reached for Keselowski’s collar. A melee ensued.
“I have been in that situation with [Keselowski] before,” Harvick said. “For me it is like the week of two totally opposite situations. I have no problem with the way Brad races. I think he races hard. I think that is what we are all supposed to do and in those positions you would probably do the same thing yourself.”
“But, I think that the problem that I have with it I have been in that situation with him before and have him turn his back on me and just walk off. I don’t think that is the appropriate way to handle those types of situations. It just kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I reacted and obviously didn’t really realize that it was going to ignite that.”
While Harvick said Friday he had no problem with the way Brad races, he had the following response when asked Sunday if he would make the same attempt for the lead that Keselowski did:
“Yeah, I couldn’t run over [Gordon] or [Jimmie Johnson] like that,” Harvick said.
Harvick’s shove started a viral meme (though, doesn’t everything start a meme these days?) called #Harvicking. He’s not necessarily proud of the way the shove took off online and referenced the contact he and Matt Kenseth had at Martinsville the week before Texas.
“I think in the end, you guys know, I love the controversy,” Harvick said. “But I think in the end the difficult part for me is to go home and realize that one day you are going to have to answer those questions to your son. It’s definitely two different sides and how you have to look at it and how you have to approach it.
“I think you look at Martinsville and how that situation was handled, I have a lot of respect for Matt (Kenseth) and what he does on the race track. You leave the track and you talk about things and you figure out what went wrong and how to handle things moving forward. There is just never that opportunity really presented with Brad and I think that is what frustrates me. I’m not going to speak for everybody else.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
