Kevin Harvick Unearths Toyota’s ‘Worst’ Aspect That Triggered Catastrophic Strategy Failure

Toyota’s participation in the race at the Talladega Superspeedway turned out to be disastrous. The race at the Dega ended with a multi-car crash involving four Toyotas. While the seven Toyotas formed a tight pack as a strategy to leapfrog the Fords and Chevrolets, a push disrupted their plan. As the drivers entered the third corner, the cars stacked up over the bumps resulting in a massive failure of the strategy called by Toyota teammates from Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing, and Legacy Motor Club.

Owing to this failure in strategy, Kevin Harvick shared his views on the multi-Toyota wreck.

Toyotas are the worst cars to push

At the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, things turned south for Toyota drivers. In a strategic call by all Toyota drivers, they had decided to pit early during Stage 3, while their rival manufacturers were in fuel-saving mode. However, as the drivers entered the third corner, the cars stacked up over the bumps. Erik Jones, after being slightly hit by Bubba Wallace from behind, suffered a head-on collision with the wall, resulting in the destruction of the front end of his car. This collision ended up impacting other drivers of the pack as Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace too had to return to the garage. John Hunter Nemechek was the only driver to continue racing despite the wreck.

In the context of this incident, Kevin Harvick opened up about what he thinks had impacted Toyota’s strategy. He said, “I think that their cars don’t seem to be able to be pushed as well as the Fords for sure. But it seems like they’re the worst cars to push you know that. Last year they fixed the front of their Camry this year to make it flat so they could be a good Pusher uh but it just doesn’t seem like they’ve got the back of the car settled”. 

Speaking further about the back bumper, Kevin Harvick added, “Yeah well there’s just the the center of that curve is you know you’ve your margin of err is small right. So being able to push that car straight and that’s why when it got got to bounce, it around over those bumps and they’re nose to tail pushing each other. But you got to know over those bumps like I would always try to let a guy go unless it was like you had to have a little breather right there in order to get him over the bumps” 

Following the wreck at the Dega, Toyota drivers also came up with their views on the same.

A Toyota won the Talladega

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Although Toyota suffered a failure in strategy, the win at the Dega was also bagged by a Toyota. Tyler Reddick, who drove his Toyota to victory lane, said, “I have to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. It was just us Toyotas left. They pushed me with everything they had. Huge credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes, we don’t win this race.” 

Out of the drivers who suffered the wreck, a frustrated Bubba Wallace said, “We were all pushing hard to execute our plan, but we didn’t do it as well as we should have. It’s disappointing for our Leidos team.” Upon accepting defeat, Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts as well, “There was a bad push up front, and it wiped us all out. I just saw the No. 43 get turned, and then I got turned.”

Toyota drivers thus failed in executing their strategic move but finally achieved the feat at Talladega with a Toyota winning the race.