Kevin Harvick rips Alex Bowman No. 48 team after Darlington: ‘Someone’s ass is on the line today’

There were multiple bad pit stops on Sunday in the Southern 500, but the stop Alex Bowman made that cost him two laps is near the top of the list for how egregious it was. Kevin Harvick believes someone will have to pay for it.

Bowman had a 40-second pit stop, one that essentially ruined his race. Now he’s -19 points down on the NASCAR Cup Series playoff cut line and in serious trouble.

“I’m not sure what’s going on behind the pit box, but I would say someone’s ass is on the line today,” Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “Whoever’s in charge of keeping all that organized and the way that the conversations and directions came from the top of the pit box, there’s a massive conversation that unfortunately unfolded in front of everybody.”

The pit stop began with a serious error from the Alex Bowman team. One of the hoses was apparently unplugged from the main box, and the team initially seemed to think the hose was malfunctioning.

There was a scramble to get another hose before the issue was seemingly realized. That cost precious time.

“A series of errors that are unacceptable,” Harvick said. “I think that, when you look at this chaos right here, this is just structure organization and everything that goes with the moments. And I think, it’s just, nobody knows what anybody’s doing. Nobody knows what’s happening. The air hose is unplugged. Just a complete disaster.”

After the hose situation was resolved, the team got a hose stuck under the front right tire. There’s mass confusion as the jack man, who had already gone to work on the left side of the car, was eventually called back around to the right side.

By the time the stop was done, Alex Bowman had fallen back two laps. Race over, even though he’d eventually work back to the lead lap.

“And I think that that, when we go back to talking about the team and kind of the demeanor or the structure of everything that goes with a particular team, this one looks unorganized based on everything that happened right here,” Harvick said. “I don’t know a nice way to say that, but this was a complete cluster.”

So how much responsibility does Alex Bowman personally bear for the poor stop? Not much, Harvick said.

“You can’t blame that on the driver,” Harvick said. “The structure and details of this team looks to be off based upon last year’s situation at The Roval, and you’re looking at this pit crew. It definitely doesn’t look completely organized.”