Upon review, Harvick's Atlanta pit road issues could have been worse

“In the end, our pit road speed was just way closer than we thought it was,” Harvick said Thursday night at an appearance at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

“Usually, we have a cushion built into our pit speed but with the measurements or whatever the calculations were with the tires, something was different with all the pit road speeding penalties. The car would bounce and get to hopping over the bumps on pit road.”

The pit road speed at Atlanta was set at 45 mph but teams are given a five-mile-an-hour “grace limit” by NASCAR before they are tagged for a violation.

Close to the edge

Harvick was caught speeding in sections 10 and 11 on pit road on his final stop with 14 of 325 laps remaining, but as it turned out, his No. 4 Ford had been cutting it close in that area virtually the entire race.

“Unfortunately, our (penalty) could have come at any time after looking at the pit road speeds,” he said. “We were 49.9-something in those sections pretty much all day and it just dinged us at the very end.

“I wish it would have dinged us at the beginning or the middle of the race. Those are just circumstances that happen. That is something that I feel our team does very well on the No. 4 car – we don’t dwell on wins; we don’t dwell on losses; we dwell on the week ahead of us and how we’re going to prepare for that.”

Not his first tough loss at Atlanta

Harvick said Sunday’s incident wasn’t any more difficult to handle. Unfortunately for him, he’s had to deal with many disappointments at Atlanta in recent seasons.

In his last four races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the track, Harvick has led 734 of 1,315 laps – more than half the laps available – but not won any of those races.

“It’s certainly not the first time we’ve been to Atlanta and dominated the race and not won. Not just at Stewart-Haas Racing, but even back when I drove for RCR, for whatever reason it just seems one thing after another happens there,” he said.

“It doesn’t sting any more than any other. It’s not the first time I’ve blown a race, or a lost a race or had something happen. Our cars have run good and there is nothing to hang our heads about.

“I was disappointed for about an hour – probably not even that.”