Kevin Harvick weighs in on pit road incident with Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman

Kevin Harvick took some time during this week’s episode of Harvick’s Happy Hour to weigh in on the pit road incident between Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman at Dover.

The moment helped Hamlin win the race, as he came out ahead of Larson and Bowman on pit road. Harvick’s co-host Kaitlyn Vincie prefaced the debate by explaining all that went on between the three drivers.

“One other incident that was a topic of conversation from the race, was the race off pit road, where it was Denny, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman all fighting for real estate, and it got kind of interesting, and Alex Bowman backed out of the situation that was about to unfold,” Vincie stated.

Harvick decided to praise Hamlin for staying on the gas, believing it’s what led to him being able to capture the win at Dover over the weekend.

“The interesting part to that three-wide situation that they were in on pit road was the No. 14 car, you’ll see Denny come out right here, and the No. 14 car, he sees that,” Harvick started. “You see him go deep into his pit box right there, Chase Briscoe, but Denny never lifted. There couldn’t have been six inches of clearance between the front bumper of Denny Hamlin’s car, and the back bumper of Chase Briscoe’s car.

“But you know, like you say, Bowman definitely lifted right there to fight another day, and Denny took a chance of not lifting, and wound up with the lead of the race.”

Evidently, it all boils down to navigating the difficult Dover pit road, which Harvick relented is one of the more challenging ones that the Cup Series has to deal with.

“The Dover pit road is just difficult,” Harvick added. “We saw earlier, when Reddick yeet’d [Corey] Heim out of the way. It’s a difficult pit road, because when you have cars going into their pit box, and cars coming out of their pit box, and it’s really only about three cars wide. The pit lane, to the pit boxes. So you’ve got the pit box, and three lanes. Your door to door. So it’s a really tight pit road, and really easy pit road to speed on, because of the gearing, because it goes so fast on the racetrack. So it’s really easy to lunge forward. So you have to, you have to really pay attention to what you’re doing.

“I think Alex was getting squeezed there in the middle and you know, Denny wound up just never checking up. Because you have to take a chance, right? Especially in that situation. If you wind up hitting the back of the No. 14 car, or whatever happens right there, it’s worth the risk. I mean, the risk actually won him the race, and his pit crew did a good job of getting him out of the pits. But not checking up right there is really what won him the race off of pit road.”

Alas, it might’ve been a bit controversial, but Denny Hamlin won the race off pit road, and it helped him win the race at Dover in the end, and Kevin Harvick respects that.