Kevin Harvick reacts to Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney surprised by lack of help at Talladega

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney were starving for help behind them late in this past Sunday’s Round of 8 playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. They started up front on the Stage 3 restart with 17 laps to go, in good position for at least one of them to win the race.

Help never came, the inside lane fell apart, and both drivers faded to the back. Logano and Blaney finished 16th and 23rd, respectively, at Talladega. Kevin Harvick said that with the field knowing how much of a threat the Team Penske duo is, it wasn’t a surprise for him to see them get shuffled to the back at the end of the race.

“I think that everybody knows if they put them in a position to win, they’re going to win. And if they can keep them shuffled and keep them in the middle of the field, that’s going to make the odds of them having that track position and being able to have that work out for him,” Harvick said on Tuesday’s Happy Hour podcast. “Guys know when you have the dominant car. And let’s face it, they’re not Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Dale Earnhardt Sr. People don’t want to see them win. And don’t want to be a part of their win.

“When you get to a point of being dominant, the competitors want to put you in a bad spot. They got shuffled and put themselves in the middle of the pack and that was it.”

The frustrating part for the Penske drivers was that they had allies around them in fellow Ford drivers Todd Gilliland, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski. Blaney hinted that some drivers might have been saving fuel, preventing them from giving much of a push.

Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney have work to do at Martinsville

“I thought we did a good job. Got control of the race after the last pit stop and just faded. Had some guys saving or something. I don’t know,” Blaney said. “They wouldn’t push. It was pretty surprising a couple of guys weren’t pushing. I figured we’d have a little more help than that from some people.”

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic said on “The Teardown” podcast that he spoke with No. 6 team crew chief Jeremy Bullins after the race. Bullins was “adamant” they were not in fuel savings mode. He added they didn’t want to be over aggressive and take out the Penske drivers.

Penske had it all going for them before that Stage 3 restart at Talladega. With Logano 38 points below the cutline and Blaney 47 points off, it’s very likely that only one of them will have a shot of advancing to the Championship 4. Even that will require a win this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Harvick isn’t confident they will have the speed based on their performances throughout the playoffs.

“As we talked [about], I think that might be it for those guys,” Harvick said. “I felt like one of them needed to win this race to get themselves to have a chance to go forward. They didn’t capitalize on that, one of those cars didn’t get to Victory Lane, and I think that could be the end of their championship run.

“… It just doesn’t feel the same this year. As far as even at Vegas, when you look at the 12 car and you look at the 22 car, it just doesn’t feel like they’ve made the jump. The 12 was gonna be good, but he wasn’t gonna be dominant. I just think that the dominant cars speed wise are the Gibbs cars right now. That’s been the case most places we’ve been except for Loudon.”