Kevin Harvick discusses Bell’s pit stop at Briscoe’s box: Was it fair?

Former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick had some interesting and quite surprising comments regarding Christopher Bell's spectacular move during the NASCAR Cup Series race in Las Vegas. On his show, "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour," Harvick commented in detail on Bell's decision to stop at Chase Briscoe's pit stop to fix a loose wheel issue. 

The move drew a lot of attention and raised questions about the limits within NASCAR rules, with Harvick sharing his interesting views.

The moment Bell realized that his wheel was dangerously wobbly, he decided to pull into the pits of his teammate, Chase Briscoe, in the hope that Briscoe's crew could fix the problem, rather than risk losing a lap due to an unrepaired wheel. Harvick was impressed by Briscoe's team, which showed coordination and speed in response, while Bell had to react quickly to find and occupy his teammate's pit stop.

“I have to admit that I’ve never been through this scenario,” Harvick said, as quoted by On3. 

“I’ve never had this conversation in my life to stop in somebody else’s pit. I thought we did a pretty good job dotting the I’s and crossing T’s. But this is pretty heads-up. When you see the fact that the crew chief was able to tell him in the amount of time that he needed to be able to… And Christopher able to compute what he was saying in his head to get out of line, it was pretty chaotic to get himself in position and find a teammate’s pit stall."

Harvick reacts

Kevin explained that the move Bell made was not outside the rules, as he was at the end of the longest pitting line outside the box. However, he did not know that it was possible for the other team to actually make a pit stop for the opposing team's vehicle, and expressed uncertainty about the move. 

Former NASCAR driver believes that this is better than a wheel falling off while driving, but he pointed out that there is a question of fairness, especially for drivers who have only one car. Namely, if a team does not have a teammate, is it fair to allow a stop at the pit stop of another team? According to him, he feels that this may not be quite fair.