Why Phoenix Worried Kevin Harvick About Team Penske

By admin — In News — October 23, 2026

   ​Kevin Harvick says pit road is the one thing that makes him nervous about Team Penske’s NASCAR title chances. Its top two title contenders, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, both lost track position on slow stops at Phoenix. Harvick shared his view on his Happy Hour podcast. “I really thought Logano was in a position to win the race. And they had a bad pit stop,” Harvick said.“The one thing that makes me nervous is, I mean, I know that Ryan Blaney’s team was technically top whatever pit crew for the Chase so far, but I think you saw who they really were this weekend. Logano had the same issue,” Harvick said.“I think that their mistakes come at the wrong times on pit road. I think both of those cars were capable of winning, and both of them had pit stops go bad at the wrong time,” Harvick said.Blaney started on the pole and led the first 44 laps. A slow four-tire stop under the first caution dropped him to eighth.Blaney recovered to finish second behind Tyler Reddick.Logano won the first two stages and led 84 laps in the No. 22 Ford. He lost track position on pit road later in the race and finished sixth.“The bad part is we gave away a win,” Logano said after the race.According to EssentiallySports, Logano’s stop with 90 laps to go took 11.8 seconds and dropped him from first to fifth. The outlet also put Blaney’s early stop at 11.2 seconds.Pit road was an issue for Blaney during the regular season. Before the Chase began, Penske swapped the pit crews on Blaney’s No. 12 Ford and Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford.Blaney’s old crew ranked 32nd through 26 races, while Cindric’s ranked 10th. Blaney said the decision came from team leadership.“I’m not the decision-maker when it comes to pit-road guys,” Blaney said at the time.After Phoenix, Blaney is fifth in the standings, 40 points behind Kyle Larson. Logano is sixth, 44 points back, with Talladega, Martinsville and Homestead-Miami left.Harvick retired from full-time Cup racing after the 2023 season and now covers motorsports as a television analyst for Fox Sports.Harvick, the 2014 Cup champion, also used his Happy Hour show this week to name the Cup drivers he thinks could win in anything.The Chase resumes Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, the first of the final three races.  

Content Source: Yahoo News

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