“Like I’m tired of the inconsistencies that go with the officiating. It has been absolute c—.” Kevin Harvick has never been shy of calling out NASCAR over their controversial ruling or decisions. Whether it be inconsistencies in the officiating calls during the races this year, or the safety concerns back in 2022, following the incident of his car catching fire in the Southern 500.

While we have tackled the late-race caution flag scenario and the penalty call for Austin Cindric, there’s a new controversy on the horizon. And it all stemmed from Christopher Bell’s decision to pit in the box of the No. 19 JGR team to avoid a penalty and save his crew from suspensions. Although this was an ingenious idea to tackle the crisis and save the day, Kevin Harvick wasn’t sure if this tactic would be ethical or fair.

Although NASCAR penalized the No. 20 team for pitting out of the box, they clearly dodged the bullet.  This in turn has led to more questions on NASCAR’s officiating call and how differently they could’ve dealt with Bell’s situation. But it looks like Kevin Harvick isn’t waiting on the sanctioning body’s intervention and has proposed a DONE committee to handle such matters.

Kevin Harvick is inspired by Elon Musk to change NASCAR for good

During stage 2 of the Pennzoil 400, Bell’s crew discovered that they had left the front left lug nut loose on Bell’s number 20 Toyota Camry, as he exited his pit box during a pit stop. In a split-second decision that probably saved Bell’s race from being washed up, Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens instructed Bell to pit in his teammate Chase Briscoe’s number 19 pit box, tighten the loose nut, and avoid a disastrous two-lap penalty that would have finished Bell’s race.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about before…It’s a situation that’s come up in the past and it’s been discussed with NASCAR. It could prevent a wheel from going across the racetrack or a dangerous situation. So as soon as possible, he jumped up with his head shaking, and we jumped on,” explained this move to pit Bell in a different pit box in a post-race interview.

Bell’s pit-stop drama is not the first time NASCAR’s officiating has come under fire, but this was enough to push Kevin Harvick over the edge and call for major reforms in NASCAR’s rulebook.

“I think we should create the DONE committee, like, the Department of NASCAR efficiency. I think we should create this committee, and then we would we should go in and get rid of a whole bunch of regulations right off the bat,” Harvick revealed on his podcast, channeling his inner Elon Musk as he calls for a complete overhaul of NASCAR’s rulebook, with his goal being slashing unnecessary rules and streamlining the process.

Kevin Harvick is not just talking about tweaking some rules, he is proposing a call for action for a fundamental shift in how NASCAR operates and officiates. He wants NASCAR to return to a merit-based system where skills and strategy matter instead of finding loopholes in the rulebook to succeed.

“And I think this the first thing I would do is, I’m gonna talk about the possibility of more rules, but the first thing we should do is talk about having less rules. We should have less regulation…I think it should be that when we have to go make more rules if you have to make more rules about something, you need to reconsider the initial rule. Yeah. So this is in one of those categories. If we have to go make a rule for the rule, we need to think about the original rule.” According to Harvik, the constant tinkering with the rules by NASCAR has created a patchwork of confusing and inconsistent rules that have been causing controversy after controversy.

This call for action by Harvick is bold but it is not the first time the sport has faced pressure to simplify or have an overhaul in its rules.

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History Repeats Itself

NASCAR’s resistance to change dates back to the 60s. In 1961, NASCAR drivers led by Curtis Turner and Jimmy Hoffa tried to unionize under the Teamster banner, asking for better financial security and more safety measures, but were met with NASCAR’s founder Bill France Sr.

“No known Teamster member can compete in a NASCAR race – and I’ll use a pistol to enforce it!” said France Sr., opposing the union, and even banning Turner and two-time champion, Tim Flock. A similar attempt in 1969 even saw Richard Petty boycotting Talladega due to safety concerns, these incidents show that even historically NASAR has refused to change its rules, something that Harvick is trying to challenge.

We all saw what happened with Race Team Alliance during the charter negotiation. It looked like for the first time the teams and drivers were united under a banner, but NASCAR had the final laugh. While 23XI Racing and FRM are trying their luck in the courts, most of the teams accepted the take-it-or-leave-it deal. So there’s a history of NASCAR being the one calling all the shots while rest complaint and bicker.

Harvick’s call for action against NASCAR raises some important questions, will NASCAR embrace the rulebook reform or will the history repeat itself?