Kevin Harvick Defends Rick Hendrick’s Star Against ‘Malicious’ Accusations From Ryan Blaney

Superspeedway races at Talladega are tough on race car drivers. Unlike other venues, the drivers always force the issue on tracks such as Talladega and Daytona. While the viewers are treated to a high-octane, intense style of racing, drivers are praying to not get caught in other people’s mess. However, Ryan Blaney was unable to dodge his fate late in stage 2 when Alex Bowman’s push on the #12 Ford resulted in a detrimental outcome.

“The 48 just drove straight into me at the tri-oval, wrecked the f— out of me; I don’t know what he was thinking.” Ryan Blaney wasn’t happy with how his race ended and didn’t hesitate to point the finger at Bowman for his misery. However, Kevin Harvick believed the HMS driver wasn’t deliberately trying to ship Blaney out of the race.

Kevin Harvick believes Blaney found himself on the bitter end of things at Talladega

Talladega holds special significance for Blaney, as in 2023, a win at the 2.66-mile track helped launch his title-winning run. And he was right up there in the contention with the Ford group of cars aiming to make it back-to-back fall Dega wins. He bagged a point in the stage 1 run and was on the verge of adding more stage points coming to the end of the stage 2 run.

The YellaWood 500 race was frantic, with drivers going three and four wide across the racetrack, jostling for the position. However, for playoff drivers, the stage points certainly meant more, and therefore they resorted to beating and banging in hopes of bettering their track position. And this is something Alex Bowman tried to pull off on the #12 car, which didn’t end well for his rival.

Penske star Ryan Blaney knew who was responsible for cutting his race short and threw shades at Bowman on the radio. “Go ahead and thank the 48 for me; I appreciate it.” But, according to Kevin Harvick, Blaney’s rant against the HMS driver wasn’t justified. Sharing his perspective on the crash on ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’, he stated, “You’re coming to the checkered flag of the stage right there thinking exactly what we’re talking about. I gotta get the most stage points that I can, and I think Alex just hit him harder than the car could take, and I don’t think that there was anything malicious there.”

Kevin Harvick even went on to highlight that this is the style of superspeedway racing that the drivers are accustomed to. And that such crashes are part and parcel of drafting tracks. “He was just trying to put himself in a position to get ahead of any car that he can get ahead of and the way that it got that 12 a little bit off center… The only way you get anywhere is to push, and we see this every time we go to a superspeedway, you push harder to go further. At some point, it spits somebody out, and this time it was Ryan Blaney.”

Tempers can get the better of NASCAR drivers at times, and it was visible in Blaney’s reaction. Alex Bowman could’ve further stoked the fire, but he chose to deal with this incident in a calm and composed manner.

Alex Bowman admits his wrongdoings

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The #48 team didn’t have the best of days trying to overturn their misfortunes of the fall race at the Talladega Superspeedway. In his last five starts, Bowman’s best finish was 14th and he failed to grab even a top-10 result. And the script repeated itself last Sunday as he could only manage a P16 finish. Expressing disappointment with his performance, Bowman admitted that Blaney got tangled in a series of his mistakes.

“I made the wrong move a lot, and I crashed the No. 12 [Blaney] with just a crappy push. Obviously just trying to push him to try and help our lane for the stage and just hit him in the wrong spot. I hate that I did that. I hate that I made the wrong decisions that I did, and I didn’t do a very good job today…I made too many mistakes and put us in too many bad spots. Obviously hate that I ruined some other guys’ days too.” The HMS driver said this to Bob Pockrass.

Coming into Talladega, Bowman had back-to-back top-10 finishes, but he was unable to continue his consistent run. He now sits 5 in the playoff standings. While he doesn’t have any wins at the tracks, Bowman’s average finish sits at 6.4, the highest of any other Cup Series driver. Heading into the final race of the round of 8, Bowman can look to maximize his points gain, combining it with his buffer of 26 points in the standings.