KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Crew chief Rodney Childers sat on the pit wall about 30 minutes after Sunday’s race, which left Kevin Harvick in the last transfer spot heading into next weekend’s elimination race at Bristol, and thought back to last week.
Childers was still contemplating how 15 seconds in a four-hour race the week before ruined Harvick’s chances of winning at Darlington and altered the first round for the No. 4 team. Had Harvick won, Sunday’s race at Kansas wouldn’t have mattered as much. Since Harvick didn’t win at Darlington, Sunday mattered even more.
Harvick finished 11th and goes to Bristol seven points ahead of Martin Truex Jr., who is the first driver outside a transfer spot.
But it’s not just Harvick who is in jeopardy of being eliminated next weekend. Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell are each 13 points ahead of Truex. Joey Logano is 12 points ahead of Truex.
While Tyler Reddick celebrated his victory and advanced in the Cup playoffs for the first time, the crew chiefs for Harvick, Logano and Buescher pondered what was and what might have been Sunday.
Harvick entered this race two points below the cutline. He was the only driver below the cutline to move above it Sunday, as Bubba Wallace (-19 points), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-22) and Michael McDowell (-40) had problems in the 400-mile race.
But Childers wondered if the day could have ended with Harvick further ahead of Truex in the standings.
“This weekend, we just kind of missed it,” Childers told NBC Sports. “Missed it off the truck. Based off the simulator, we were way too tight when we got here. When you unload that tight it’s just hard to make up for it in a short amount of time. Then, you’re trying to hit it right for the race.
“We started the race, and we were still too tight. We freed it up a ton. We were able to make it a lot better the first stop and got competitive and kept making it better until we got up front. There, toward the last stage, I don’t know if it was the shade or sun going down or what, it seemed like we got loose.”
Childers said he wanted to take air pressure out of the right rear to help the car’s handling but after seeing right rears blow this weekend, he said he “was really scared to take air out of the right rear.”
Harvick was 10th before the final pit stop and Childers considered a two-tire call but said Harvick wasn’t in favor of it. A pair of drivers ahead of Harvick took two tires — Erik Jones and Kyle Busch — and both finished ahead of Harvick. Jones placed third, Busch was seventh.
Even after the race, Childers thought back to Darlington.
Harvick was second when Childers called him to pit road for his final stop last weekend. Leader Tyler Reddick also was called to pit road in reaction to Harvick’s move, but Reddick couldn’t make pit road and his actions forced Ryan Newman to spin, creating a caution.
Harvick entered pit road after it was closed for the caution. But there was confusion with Harvick’s team on if he made it in time and Childers called for the crew to pit the car. Since Harvick entered pit road when it was closed, he was penalized for servicing the car and started at the rear of the field. Had he driven through pit road, Harvick likely would have blended about 11th in the field.
“Last week bothered me a lot,” Childers said. “There were so many things that could have been handled differently. It could have been handled differently on my side, but it also could have been handled differently from the NASCAR side (in confirming Harvick didn’t enter pit road before it was closed).”
Further down pit road, Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Logano, relished a pit call that went in Logano’s favor but also pondered the struggles the team had Sunday.
Logano was 15th when the final caution waved. Wolfe called for a two-tire stop, putting Logano third on the overtime restart. He finished fifth. Those extra 10 points gained by the pit call could prove critical next weekend.
“I wasn’t confident it was going to be the winning call,” Wolfe told NBC Sports about the two-tire pit call, “but it was one that, at least, I felt like would make a gain from where we were. You never know if there is a shot to win or not. It’s all dependent on how many guys did it and how the restart went. Considering that (Daniel Suarez did not pit) and we had to restart behind him, Joey did a really nice job of maximizing (it).”
Wolfe had to make the two-tire call because Sunday was another example of the 1.5-mile tracks proving to be a challenge for the reigning Cup champions.
“If you look at every mile-and-a-half this year, if you look at just real speed, we’ve been a 10th-to-15th-place car,” Wolfe said. “We’ve tried things. We have a couple of opportunities at tire tests. We felt like we made gains, but at this point you’re keeping even, everyone’s working on their stuff and getting better.”
It was a tire test last year that was pivotal in Logano and his finding the speed that led him to the championship.
“I just haven’t been able to recreate that this year on a mile-and-a-half, so we’re kind of stuck there in that 10th-to-15th (spot),” Wolfe said. “We want to be better. We’re trying. It’s just the reality.”
But he has confidence going to Bristol next weekend. Short tracks have been the team’s strength this year.
“I kind of knew that going into this round that Bristol was a race for us to have speed and have an opportunity to win,” Wolfe said.
No team feels better about Bristol coming up than Chris Buescher’s No. 17 group. He won last year’s playoff race, but crew chief Scott Graves was disappointed after Sunday’s 27th-place finish. Buescher was running 12th before a tire issue sent him into the wall.
“We hadn’t seen a problem all weekend,” Graves told NBC Sports. “After practice, we had Goodyear … look at them. No issues. We were running the same (air) pressures in the race that we ran in practice, ran some other runs that had been similar in length and saw no issues all day, so I really don’t know.
“Just a shame that with five laps to go, you’re that close and really cost us 15 points.”
Still, Buescher is above the cutline.
“It’s better to be 13 up rather than 13 down,” Graves said. “Whether we advance, it’s up to us.”