Kevin Harvick makes ominous prediction about pit road mistakes in future

Kevin Harvick believes the impact a driver’s pit crew has on any given race is going to continue to ascend moving forward in the world of NASCAR.

Pit crews have always have an effect on races week-in and week-out, but Harvick explained via the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour that he believes that’ll only continue to grow as pit stops become faster, and it could change the sport as we know it.

“As the pit stops have become faster, it just seems like over and over and over, we see mistakes at key moments,” Harvick opined. “I think that’s going to continue to happen. They’re going to continue to (happen, because now) they’re going to knock, you know, half a tenth, a tenth, and then the next guy is going to have to knock a half a tenth and a tenth, and those pit crew guys, they just get better and better and better. But the margin for error is starting to become smaller and smaller and smaller. You know, just dropping that jack and having the lug nut not be set on there, the wheel not be clocked on there right, it just puts you in a position to have more mistakes.

“I think that when you look at, I think the Gibbs group sticks out the most, as far as the mistakes on pit road. It seems like they’ve had more than their fair share. But we’ve seen the No. 5 have a bunch of catastrophic moments, where the pit crew and everything kind of goes wrong. But I think that’s going to be the norm. I think that it’s going to be the norm for the guys, that are just on that ragged edge of pushing it, to have those mistakes keep happening.”

We’ve already seen networks like FOX and NBC try to get ahead of the curve, highlighting members of certain pit crews and helping shine a light on one of the more unheralded positions in NASCAR. The drivers get most of the love, and rightfully so, but their pit crew members can change a race in an instant.

Kevin Harvick believes we’re headed to an era in the sport where they become more and more prominent, truly making NASCAR a team sport. That’ll be more evident than ever over the next couple of seasons in the motorsports world, if the former champion’s prediction comes true.