Harvick defends RCR’s honor—with his bumper

Harvick defends RCR’s honor—with his bumper


By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(September 25, 2010)

DOVER, Del.—Denny Hamlin found out Saturday that words come with a price.
Kevin Harvick took issue with Hamlin’s impugning the integrity of Richard Childress Racing and showed his displeasure on the first lap of practice Saturday at Dover International Speedway.
Harvick slammed Hamlin twice in the rear bumper before sideswiping the No. 11 Toyota. The contact ripped a seam between the right rear quarter panel and the bumper cover of Hamlin’s car.
Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet sustained minor damage on the left front and left side, and both drivers brought their cars to the garage for repairs. The two cars were parked beside each other in their respective stalls. Hamlin climbed from his car and exchanged words with Harvick and RCR vice president of competition Mike Dillon.
In the wake of the penalty NASCAR levied on RCR driver Clint Bowyer, owner Richard Childress and the No. 33 Chevrolet team when Bowyer’s race-winning car at New Hampshire measured outside NASCAR’s tolerances, Hamlin fired the opening salvo Friday at Dover.
The No. 33 team was warned after the Sept. 11 race at Richmond, where a sixth-place finish got Bowyer into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Hamlin asserted RCR was warned before that.
“It’s not two weeks old,” Hamlin said. “This is something that’s been going on for months. They’ve been warned for a long time, way before Richmond.”
By implication, he tarred the Harvick’s No. 29 and Jeff Burton’s No. 33 with the same brush.
“The more they reel the other teams in, the better off our team’s going to be,” Hamlin said. “It’s going to affect the 29, the 31 and the 33. I think the only difference is the 33 won the race, so he went to the tech center.”
Hamlin also disputed whether contact from the wrecker that pushed Bowyer’s car to victory lane could knock the rear of the car beyond the tolerances. Harvick apparently wanted to give Hamlin first-hand experience of what damage a shot from another car can do.
Childress, who declined to respond to Hamlin’s assertions, said he didn’t see the practice incident, but he had strong words for Hamlin after Saturday’s first practice session.
“You can’t win a pissing contest with a skunk,” Childress said. “Two things I’ve learned. One of ’em is that. The other one is you don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house.”
Asked about the heavy damage to the back of Hamlin’s car, Childress quipped, “I don’t know whether he backed into Kevin or not.”
Harvick’s crew spent 20 minutes in the garage bay repairing primarily cosmetic damage to the No. 29 car. Hamlin’s crew riveted the quarter panel to the bumper cover, a process that took about 25 minutes.
After Hamlin posted the 29th-fastest speed in the first session, the No. 11 crew cut, attached and taped a new section of sheet metal behind the right rear wheel well. Hamlin improved to seventh fastest in the final practice.
After the final practice, Hamlin said he expected some sort of payback from the RCR teams.
“I think it’s unnecessary, because it didn’t help either one of the race teams,” Hamlin said. “I spoke my mind (Friday), and I felt like I said a lot of truth, and a lot of times that’s not popular with the teams that are involved. Something I’ve always done is speak my mind. It’s not always in my best interest to do that, but when someone asks me a question, I’m always going to give my 100 percent honest answer, and that’s the best I can do.
“Now we just move on. We get our car fixed, and we’re obviously getting some of our speed back, and now the goal is to move on.”
Hamlin said the altercation in the garage didn’t amount to much.
“There was a lot of cursing,” he said. “That’s all, really, that was being said. There was really nothing logical being said inside with the two teams. Nothing’s ever going to come of it. I had a hint when their crew guys—they’d just stare and they made little comments before the (practice), ‘Good luck today.’
“He got into me on pit road before we even (got to) the track, so I knew we were going to have to deal with some issues. … Our job is still to win a championship. We look pretty good on speed, especially compared to those guys.”
Harvick was 15th fastest in final practice.

RACING HELL ON WHEELS EDITORS NOTE -
Think of these thoughts
Why does Hamlin even care ?the win wasnt going to be taken away and given to him, Nascar doesnt and never has done that
And now theres one driver/team in the chase he really didnt  have to worry about --until now!