BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kevin Harvick will start from the rear and serve a pass through penalty at the start of Sunday’s Food City 500 after his No. 4 Ford failed prerace inspection three times.
At 12:55 p.m., NASCAR officials confirmed that Harvick’s car, which had qualified 13th, cleared its fourth attempt through the technical procedures. His engineer also was ejected from Bristol Motor Speedway.
If the car had failed again, the next level of punishment for Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing team would have been an L1 penalty constituting a points deduction.
It’s been a bumpy few weeks for Harvick, who criticized his car’s performance last week after an eighth at Texas Motor Speedway.
He also was critical of NASCAR officials for their comments about Texas qualifying.
