Kevin Harvick Unmasks His Broken Ribs Slipup to Console Joe Gibbs’ ‘Worst Liar’

A few days ago, Christopher Bell endured one of the most humiliating experiences. If you’ve been living under a rock, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver accidentally revealed important information. As Martin Truex Jr announced his retirement at the end of the season, there was speculation on who would replace him, and Bell just ended all rumors around that by naming MTJ’s replacement.

At New Hampshire, Bell was in a pre-race press conference, when he accidentally mentioned ‘Chase‘ coming in. At the time, it was rumored that Chase Briscoe was on his way to the team. It’s safe to say that the blurt took the wind out of everyone’s sails. Although he caught himself, the damage was done, and he faced an awkward conversation with boss Joe Gibbs.

In the end, Joe Gibbs Racing had no choice but to eventually confirm the worst-kept secret in NASCAR. At least C. Bell managed to somewhat redeem himself by dominating the race at the NHMS. However, in the immediate aftermath of the slip-up, he did the smart thing and stayed away from social media for a while. Of course, everyone had to discuss the viral moment, and Kevin Harvick was among the many.

When Kevin Harvick broke his ribs in Italy

The 2014 Cup Series champion could not help but feel second-hand embarrassment for the #20 driver. Harvick acknowledged that Bell knew that he had royally messed up. He said on the Harvick Happy Pod, “The most entertaining part about that is the fact that his face turned bright red. He is the worst liar; he wasn’t lying; he was being honest; he knew he was in trouble or felt like he was in trouble. Knew he had said something that he shouldn’t have said. I don’t think it’s really any secret.”

“Chase Briscoe is going to be driving the #19 car and it just flew out of Christopher Bell’s mouth. But his face turned bright red, I felt bad for him because he knew immediately that he had let it slip.”

Acknowledging how it is only natural to goof up at times, he had a similar incident. He narrated a story about how he was injured and didn’t tell anyone: “The last one that I slipped up with was when I broke my ribs, and I didn’t tell anybody. I broke my ribs in Italy. I went to watch the Keelan race; that was last year, my retirement year.”

Yes, you read that right. Kevin Harvick, like any other human, slipped up while walking, and the next thing he knew was a major fracture in his ribs. How did that happen?

Here’s the story in his own words: “It was raining where we were, and I was walking out of the kart trailer, and it’s got aluminum steps. Buddy, I hit the first one, and I landed at the bottom one. It was rib, rib, rib, rib, all the way down the steps. I lay down at the bottom of the steps, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God! I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, Italy and I can’t get off the ground.’ I finally got myself off the ground, sat on a chair. For 2 days, they had to pull me out of bed, a rental car.”

And to add to his difficulties, it was just Harvick and Keelan, the 10-year-old son, taking care of the father. But the slip-up wasn’t even near when he came back and raced in Nashville, even though it was tough for him. The following weekend in Chicago, he wasn’t so lucky, but he powered through it and held his silence. Unfortunately, he accidentally spilled the beans at Indianapolis, and that got NASCAR’s attention. From there, an awkward conversation followed, but Harvick has since recovered fully.

“I didn’t mention it like that, I mentioned in my interview, ‘Well we’ve had a lot of things that worked through this year. This, that’ and then I said broken ribs immediately. NASCAR was like ‘What! Who knew about this!’ and sending me text messages and wanting to know what had happened,”

According to the former champion, that weekend in New Hampshire was a strange one. To start things off, there was a mishap when their motorhome caught fire, and then Christopher Bell’s faux pas. Fortunately, their rotten streak was broken with Bell’s victory.

Harvick cut the younger driver some slack because the slip-up was so unlike him. Though he did say that, Christopher Bell took the situation very seriously, which made the scenario even funnier. Bell tried so hard and failed spectacularly, and that was hilarious.