Kevin Harvick airs out one major criticism of Ross Chastain after playoff elimination at Charlotte

Kevin Harvick believes that Ross Chastain was doing too much during the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Charlotte on Sunday. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick shared his thoughts on Chastain, who made multiple mistakes at Charlotte that led to his playoff elimination.

“Ross Chastain is very well prepared week in and week out,” Kevin Harvick said. “His work ethic is over the top. He’s very honest; he gives it all that he has. There’s no questioning any of that. I think in these types of moments, this is when you find out where people are from a championship standpoint. Is it real, or is it not, when you get to the last level?

“I think he just tries to do too much. I think he overthinks some of these things to the point where, ‘Do I really need to race that hard to the end of pit road so far that I’m trying to gain a spot on the 77 (Carson Hocevar) car that I go so far that I hit the wall driving off pit road?’ You got to draw the line between realistic and unrealistic, right? Don’t try to overdo the things that you’re doing.”

Ross Chastain talks about the ‘terrible’ mistakes he made at Charlotte

Ross Chastain made two mistakes on pit road at Charlotte, which led to two penalties. Early in the race, Chastain had trouble exiting pit road, and NASCAR put him back at 30th place. He battled back as the races progressed and still had a chance to advance in the playoffs. However, Chastain made another mistake on pit road when he was speeding during his final pit stop.

Ultimately, Chastain missed out on reaching the Round of 8, as Joey Logano got past him in points during the final lap. After the race, Chastain took full responsibility for the playoff elimination.

“For Busch Light Chevy, Trackhouse Racing, they expect so much more out of me, and the speed on pit road, I had to go back and went off the end of pit road and didn’t turn,” Chastain said. “I thought I had more room and just was trying to get to the yellow line, and just completely started the downfall there.

“Then I came off out of the pit stall and double-clicked up into third and just unforced errors. Just terrible. So it’s heartbreaking for almost 200 employees at Trackhouse, of our teammates, our ECR Engines, everybody that makes this go around with Jockey and The Moose and Kubota.”