Kevin Harvick Left Disappointed After Toyota’s “Bonehead” Move Gave Up Control at Talladega

There might have been a Toyota winner at Talladega, but the Toyotas were not at their best on Sunday. Many of them formed a single file pack as they helped each other out going forward, but the play backfired majorly when they ran over a bump on the track and John Hunter Nemechek set off a massive wreck.

Following this, drivers like Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin found themselves out of the picture, and as per Kevin Harvick, it was not the smartest thing to do.

The racetrack where Bill Elliott has the fastest lap turns into a nightmare for Toyotas

Kevin Harvick has been a racer for over 2 decades and has raced countless times at the Talladega Superspeedway. He knows exactly what the track is about and was not a fan of what the Toyota drivers wanted to do. It’s quite rare to see a single file pack, even if the cars belong to the same manufacturer. Certainly, that’s not something Harvick seemed to be used to, and he ripped the strategy call apart on a recent episode of his Happy Hour podcast.

Harvick exclaimed, “Reddick was put in that position, he and Truex were put in that position because of just a pure bonehead move from the 7 or 8 Toyotas that were drafting together. They had kind of fooled everybody on the strategy and put themselves in a position to be really in control of the race and you saw that play out for a couple of them but the other 4 or 5 of them were wrecked running in a single file line.”

“I just…there’s always things that can happen but that is just a terrible move by the group of Toyotas that were running there together. We talked about it on the broadcast, when you go into turn 3 and you go over all those bumps, I think the cars kind of got out of shape and they were all pushing and got misaligned,” he said.

While many blamed the track for the wreck, Kevin Harvick believes that the blame also lies on Legacy Motor Club’s recent signing, John Hunter Nemechek. And the 2014 Cup Series champion made a very good point.

Kevin Harvick pins the blame on LMC starlet for the multi-car crash

While a lot of people have blamed the Talladega Superspeedway surface for being the main culprit in causing the Toyota wrecks, Kevin Harvick believes that John Hunter Nemechek was also to blame. Had the Legacy Motor Club driver lifted at the right time, he would have never bumped into Bubba Wallace, setting off the entire wreck. Working as a team has its pros, but when the execution isn’t right, it can heavily backfire, and that’s exactly what happened.

“By the time you got 3 or 4 cars back in that group…I don’t think John Hunter ever lifted. I think he just was so late to the lift party…Erik Jones was kind of the one that got shot out of the cannon and wrecked and then they bounced off the wall and collected Denny Hamlin and just…I think they knew they were in a position, needed to make time and just got to push him too hard, got misaligned and crashed together running single file,” he added.

After Talladega, the Toyota drivers will almost certainly think twice before running in a single file as part of a strategy. Who do you think was to blame for the accident—the track or the drivers? Let us know your thoughts.