Kevin Harvick is no longer a surefire part of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
NASCAR’s Wednesday morning (Nov. 7) penalty report following last weekend’s action at Texas Motor Speedway deemed Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team had a spoiler violation post-race.
As a result of the L1 penalty, Harvick loses 40 driver points, and the win no longer will count towards the championship, dropping him to fourth of the eight drivers remaining in championship contention, three points above the cutline ahead of teammate Kurt Busch.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano is now the only driver locked into racing for the championship at Homestead.
Crew chief Rodney Childers has been fined $75,000 for the infraction, and both he and car chief Robert Smith have been suspended for the final two races of the 2018 season at ISM Raceway and Homestead.
Stewart-Haas Racing also loses 40 owner points, which drops the team to fourth in the owner standings as well.
The team will not appeal the penalty, and longtime employee Tony Gibson will serve as Harvick’s crew chief for the rest of the season, according Jeff Gluck.
HUGE NASCAR playoff news: Kevin Harvick’s win at Texas ruled encumbered. Harvick no longer locked in to Homestead, Rodney Childers and car chief Cheddar Smith suspended for rest of season and Harvick loses 40 points. Harvick now goes into Phoenix only three points above cutline.
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) November 7, 2018
Other MENCS teams penalized this week were the No. 12 Team Penske Ford of Ryan Blaney and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Erik Jones, both L1 penalties for problems with body panels.
Blaney’s crew chief Jeremy Bullins has been fined $50,000, and car chief Kirk Almquist has been suspended for the final two races of the season.
Jones’ crew chief Chris Gayle has also been fined $50,000, and car chief Jason Overstreet has been suspended for the final two races.
Both Blaney and Jones lose 20 points in both the drivers and owners standings, though there isn’t as much of a hit as they were already eliminated from championship contention. This has no effect on the owner standings of the No. 12, though the No. 20 slips one spot to 14th.
Blaney drops to 10th place in the driver standings with the penalty, while Jones drops into a tie for 15th with Austin Dillon.
In the Camping World Truck Series, the No. 35 NextGen Motorsports team driven by Brennan Poole was penalized for a safety infraction during practice for losing a container of ballast. This means that crew chief Ryan Bell, truck chief Jerry Kennedy and mechanic Patrick Magee will be suspended for the next three events, which includes the 2019 season opener at Daytona International Speedway.