Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne Lose NASCAR Points After Pocono Qualifying Debacle
The two veterans now have 10 fewer points each after their cars failed post-qualifying inspection multiple times at Pocono.
NASCAR released its weekly report on Wednesday, detailing penalties from the July 27-29 race weekend that included Camping World Truck and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series races at Pocono Raceway and an Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway. Upon review, it's been revealed that the report included points deductions for the Cup Series teams of Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne.
Harvick and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team and Kasey Kahne and his No. 95 Leavine Family Racing team were each docked 10 driver and owner points as a result of failing inspection three times at Pocono. They were among 13 Cup Series teams to fail inspection after qualifying at least once. Four cars, also including the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing entry of Paul Menard and the No. 22 Team Penske entry of Joey Logano, failed at least twice.
No playoff points were taken, so the penalty has no effect on Harvick and his team, as they have locked into the playoffs by virtue of six race wins.
“Three failures at Chicago equated to ‘we need to get more aggressive,’ and more aggressive didn’t cut it today for them,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller said after the problematic post-qualifying inspection at Pocono. “Most of the problems were centered around the body scan, but not all; some were mechanical measurements with the rear toe. We’re disappointed in this, but we’re certainly confident in our process.”
All cars that failed the post-qualifying inspection at Pocono, which also served as pre-race inspection during the abbreviated Cup Series weekend schedule, had their qualifying times disallowed and started from the back of the field. Those who failed at least twice also had a team member ejected from the Pocono Raceway garage area.
NASCAR also listed indefinite suspensions of two team members, David M. Little Jr. and Douglas E. Choulnard, on its latest penalty report, both for behavioral violations. Little’s suspension was a result of a violation of the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy. NASCAR, though, did not comment on the nature of Choulnard’s violation.
