Kevin Harvick laments ‘disaster’ day for Kyle Busch after John Hunter Nemechek incident

Kyle Busch was coming off a top 10 finish at Talladega, the first such finish for RCR all season. He qualified for Texas in sixth, starting to show signs of real momentum with new crew chief Andy Street.

Then a white flag incident with John Hunter Nemechek put a real damper on the finish at Texas. Busch, who was vying for a spot likely just outside the top 10 before, finished in 20th after wrecking Nemechek.

Kevin Harvick called it a “disaster” for Busch on an otherwise good day. He opened up on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.

“They could have finished 25th at that point, no controversy, and called it a great day,” Harvick said. “But instead now you’ve got to deal with all of this nonsense at the end of the race. What was otherwise a complete win for the 8 car with a new crew chief for the whole day and the whole weekend. All you had was positives all weekend and then it turns into a disaster unfortunately.”

Kyle Busch attempted to defend himself on social media after the race, saying he was just defending his line on the track. And, in fact, SMT data from NASCAR seemed to indicate that Busch’s handling may have been compromised after the first contact with Nemechek, just before the wreck.

Still, the optics were not great. Harvick defended Nemechek, too.

“I don’t think that John Hunter Nemechek did anything wrong right here,” he said. “You see the car in front of him is a little bit closer to the wall, but the car in front of him is in the exact same line. Regardless of where they are, I mean Kyle has to give him the room. And they’re going straight and he turned over the front of John Hunter Nemechek’s car, puts them both in the wall. They go into Turn 3 and then he wipes him out again.”

For Harvick, Kyle Busch simply needs to start stacking momentum. Small wins are big ones at this point.

Busch missed an opportunity on Sunday. He can’t afford to miss many more of those — Harvick even suggested Busch’s ride in 2026 might be in jeopardy.

“I don’t know any other way to explain it,” he said. “I want Kyle Busch to win, I want all the success for Kyle Busch. And I think at the end of this race he put a damper on what was a huge turnaround for his team, qualifying well, running in the top 10.”