Kevin Harvick Issues Stern Injustice Notice to NASCAR Against Wood Brothers’ & Co. After Christopher Bell’s Antics

Camaraderie and teamwork or unfair advantage? Christopher Bell’s chaotic race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is bringing up the question. Bell’s race took a dramatic turn when his crew failed to properly tighten the left front wheel during a routine pit stop. Faced with the risk of a loose wheel penalty, crew chief Adam Stevens made a bold decision to have Bell pull into teammate Chase Briscoe’s (No. 19) pit box for an adjustment. While this quick-thinking maneuver prevented a dangerous situation, it also sparked controversy about fairness and whether such actions should be permissible within NASCAR’s framework.

As it turns out the No. 20 team was wary about these concerns and did what they could to salvage the situation. “It’s something that we’ve talked about before. It’s a situation that’s come up in the past, and it’s been discussed with NASCAR. So, it could prevent a wheel going across the racetrack or a dangerous situation.” Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens said. NASCAR fans might recall an almost similar situation at the 2023 Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. In that race Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to ask for help from the Toyota pit crew members when some electrical issues caused a fire in his car.

NASCAR did send Bell to the rear of the field for the restart, but teams and other pit crews saw how they could deal with such a situation in the future. And this could lead to a new trend within the garage. Although the No. 20 prevented the wheel from going off loose on the track and spoiling someone else’s race, Kevin Harvick felt it wouldn’t be fair especially to the small teams.

“Every time I stopped in somebody else’s box, there was usually a fight,” said Harvick on Happy Hour, expressing his surprise and concern over Christopher Bell’s emergency pit stop. Talking to NASCAR reporters Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith, He further added, “It’s within the rules. It’s tail end of the longest line for pitting outside the box. But I didn’t know that you could have another team actually pit your car and I don’t know how I feel about it.

“I feel like it’s better than the wheel falling off but what about the guy who only has one car? Is that fair to the guy that only has one car that doesn’t have a teammate to stop in their box? Because I don’t think it is…I can’t wait to see where this goes because it’s not fair but it is safer.”

“If Chase Elliott decides he’s going to pull into Chase Briscoe’s box, is it okay? Or is he just there for the sale? So now every team is going to do it. I agree with the safer piece of it, it’s better to not have the wheel fall off, but is it fair? Because in the end, it has to be fair,” Harvick added. 

The likes of Rickware Racing, Wood Brothers Racing, and Hyak Motorsports have one full-time charter each. In case their race car has loose wheels in the pits, where will they pit? Of course, teams like Joe Gibbs Racing who have four charters can rely on their teammates like Bell did. Here comes Harvick’s argument, “Is it fair that a two-car team only has one choice and a four-car team has three choices well and what if the pit box is already behind you? Well sometimes they don’t have the option until you’re all the way down pit road so, I don’t know, This is a great debate.”

It is important to note that a loose wheel on the racetrack leads to the ejection of the pit crew members for at least two races. Even Kyle Larson found himself on the bitter end of things with a loose wheel during the COTA race. So, there seems to be a genuine concern with the single-lug nut wheel system on the Next Gen car. But, Bell and his team didn’t want to get hit by a pit crew penalty and therefore they improvised and were able to see out the race in Vegas. Notably, NASCAR hasn’t penalized the #20 team for their antics, and it has an interesting stand on the matter.

In the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde said that the unprecedented move would be allowed considering safety concerns. “In our view, a tire coming off the car is a very dangerous situation,” Forde said. “That’s something we take very seriously. I think that’s where the allowance, the acceptance of what the 20 team did, and really the applauding of what the 20 team did, comes in because if what they did was avoid that dangerous situation, we’re OK with it to a certain point.”

“Safety is one thing, a competitive advantage is another. So that’s really the conversation we’ll continue to have, but going into Homestead, no changes to the rule. But somewhere in the future, potentially,” he further added. Meanwhile, Briscoe’s crew chief James Small was not at all surprised with what was happening. Rather, he appeared to be somewhat prepared for it and he did not need any warning ahead of the incident.

“If you’re down on that end of pit road (close to pit exit), we just, for years, we’ve had an agreement that if somebody rolls up to your pit box, you know what you need to do. I could see Bell trying to get to our box and I’m like he must have a loose wheel” Small told NBC Sports. Small also revealed that at Joe Gibbs Racing, they have talked about such a situation “for many years now and that’s just the first time it’s happened.”

It’s not that Christopher Bell’s team did something wrong, well they had the option and they took it to soften the blow. And loose wheels have been a running problem since the start of the 2025 season. So is NASCAR aware of the situation and what are they doing to solve this major concern?

2022 season’s woes hitting the Cup Series garage again

The Next-Gen car was first introduced in 2022 and it came with a major revamp including the 18-inch wheel fastened by a single lug nut instead of five smaller ones. The average pit stop time was reduced drastically, but with the speed came mistakes and errors. This is where the cars started to have loose wheel issues and subsequently, the teams involved with these troubles were penalized.

Well, the 2025 season has seen a similar uptick in incidents. Apart from Bell his teammate Briscoe and former JGR driver Kyle Busch also had issues with their tires. Then there is Kyle Larson’s incident at COTA, so there seems to be a genuine concern with how the single-lug nut system is functioning. As it turns out NASCAR is aware of this ongoing issues with race car and are working behind the scenes to find a resolution soon.

“It’s kind of odd that we saw a couple in the past few weeks. And then we saw two on the track.” Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran said this on Sirius XM Radio. “I’ve been discussing it with a lot of the crew chiefs and managers. And yeah, I wouldn’t so quickly say it was the wheel weight. I think it’s about time as well and timing and trying to get as much done as you can in the shortest period of time. Again, you push it to the limit and unfortunately, if that car hits the ground before that nut’s tight, we’ve had this problem.”

With the teams pushing close to 8-second range pit stops, such problems and incidents are only to rise in future. It will be interesting to see how NASCAR handles the situation without affecting the components of the race car.