It seems a part time truck racer would be ecstatic with a third place finish. Not Kevin Harvick. Actually Harvick is pretty upset with his finish, and with the guy who finished second.
Harvick felt he had the best truck today at New Hampshire, and evidently communicated that to second place finisher Ron Hornaday Jr's team. Hornaday didn’t get the memo.
Was it the miss-communication upsetting Harvick, or was it the fact Hornaday didn’t pull over and let his boss goes by?
In post race interviews, Harvick expressed his disappointment and referred to it as poor communication between Hornaday, crew chief Rick Ren and their spotter.
“If you’re going to have teamwork, you gotta have a two way street,” said Harvick.
Hornaday was oblivious of what was going on, and at one point said he was going to talk to Harvick to see what he had done wrong. What he did wrong was not pull over and stop so the boss could win, or at least try to win.
Hornaday is a truck racer, a full time truck racer who is about to secure a championship.
How could you put him in this position Kevin? Why would you risk any possibility of loss of points at this juncture? Why were you even in the race?
Is it because of such a dismal Cup season, you need to manufacture a win in the truck series? Even if at the expense of a record setting driver who is on the verge of bringing you a championship?
You have 10 more chances to win in the Sprint Cup. Or have you given up on the rest of this season and just not announced it yet?
Hornaday admitted backing off several times as Harvick got close to him, giving up the bottom of the track, but Harvick could not seem to make the pass, even with fresher tires.
If you had the best truck Kevin, you had 199 chances to prove it.
Hornaday’s confusion continued as he tried to explain their final pit strategy. “Kevin said he was going on five and I was to go on 10. But he didn’t count down, he just said five and then went, so I went,” said Hornaday. “It didn’t matter, Busch still got out first.”
Was this timing delay set up to assure Harvick exited the pits ahead of Hornaday?
You mentioned teamwork Kevin. When entering the same race as Hornaday, are you listed as his teammate or his boss? Is it counter productive trying to be both?
In the post race interview Harvick also said he felt like they gave the race away, meaning Hornaday, his crew chief and spotter.
The race was given away Kevin. It was given away in the pits with your timing directive, and then given away again while Hornaday was backing off, even though you couldn’t make the pass.
While Harvick was attempting to orchestrate the race fix, Busch ran off and garnered the checkered flag.
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