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Kevin Harvick recalled the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season when he was involved in a post-race heated argument with Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon.
During the Texas 500 in 2014, Keselowski and Gordon were ahead in the final moments of the race after the two made contact, resulting in the latter suffering from a puncture because of the car's side skirts. He fell down the grid as a late caution was waved, and Keselowski went on to finish the race in third place, while Gordon fell back in 29th.
A heated argument took place between the two drivers following the end of the race, and Kevin Harvick third-wheeled the entire discussion. Not too long into it, Harvick pushed Brad Keselowski into Jeff Gordon and a major fight broke on the circuit. While it was entertaining for viewers, many felt that it was unprofessional.
Reviewing the incident on the Harvick's Happy Hour podcast, the veteran NASCAR driver wasn't seemingly too proud of it. He explained:
"There's more to it than just driving the car, and sometimes you have to try to do different things to re-direct the conversation or put somebody in the fire that's not in the fire that you're competing against, and this was a very calculated moment. I thought that we could capitalize on this to really turn the story on somebody else, but it just didn't look good, but that's the way it worked out."
Harvick went on to win the Cup Series championship that season, his only championship win throughout his long career before retiring after the 2023 season, where he finished 13th in the points standings.
Kevin Harvick on how he changed the 'direction' of the conversation in Texas incident
The incident in Texas sparked controversy and a heated discussion between the Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. The former was seemingly only the catalyst in the entire scenario, having pushed the drivers into each other, literally.
Talking about the incident, Kevin Harvick stated that it was "awesome to watch" how he managed to get the two drivers into fighting with each other. He also mentioned that with this, he was not the subject of discussion between the two.
"It was awesome to watch, just not awesome to start, right? I was leaning on the decklid at the back of the car watching everything go down. I was like, 'move man [Keselowski], get in there!' And next thing you know, there's a massive fight on pit road. They weren't talking about me anymore."
Kevin Harvick further stated that it changed the "direction of the conversation" and they were able to clinch the championship in the season later.
"That was one of those calculations that I would recalculate today, not advise you to be the one that does that, but it wound up changing the direction of the conversation. We went all the way to the championship four that year and put ourselves in position to win a championship."
