With 60 NASCAR Cup Series wins to his name, it is safe to say that Kevin Harvick enjoyed an illustrious career. Having said that, there have been moments where things got out of hand for the former Stewart-Haas Racing driver. Just recently, Harvick revealed an episode where he faced the heat from current NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton.

In his amazing NASCAR journey, there have been moments where Harvick lost his cool on the track. While sometimes his temper was justified, sometimes that wasn’t the case. One such act got him in huge trouble early in his NASCAR career.

Kevin Harvick triggered a bench-clearing brawl at Richmond Raceway

On-track incidents have always played a key role in Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR journey. Due to the unfortunate and untimely demise of Dale Earnhardt Sr at the 2001 Daytona 500, his promotion to the Cup Series escalated. While he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, his act in 2003 was certainly questionable.

After three wins in his first two years, Kevin Harvick looked hungry for more. With a win already at Indianapolis in 2003, he was running second at Richmond Raceway. Back then, he was racing for Richard Childress Racing and was close to the race leader, Ryan Newman, with eight laps to go.

However, things changed as he entered Turn 1. Ricky Rudd, running third, tagged Harvick’s rear bumper, spinning the #29 car. The RCR driver made hard contact with the outside wall and eventually finished P16 in the race. Naturally, Kevin Harvick looked upset as he vented out his frustration on pit road.

The California-born driver drove next to Rudd’s car and side-swiped him. While Harvick yelled some strong expletives, crew members from both teams got involved in a heated argument. In fact, while walking to the hauler, the #29 driver threw his HANS device at Rudd.

With a lot of anger displayed, the pit road scenes looked pretty intense. However, it only got more dramatic when both teams faced the then-NASCAR President, Mike Helton. Recently, on his podcast Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick explained how Helton scared him to the core.

In his words, “They stood us in the hauler, and it was the #21 team and my team. And I just remember Mike Helton walking in the back door, and at that time he was pretty heavy, and he came in, and he was so mad that every piece of his skin was vibrating as he came up in.“

Kevin Harvick continued, “He came up in that lounge, and it was myself, and, Ricky Rudd and, the team owners sitting in there and he said you motherf**kers just caused a bench-clearing brawl in the middle of everything that I’m doing. I am just shaking the whole time, so it was a pretty intense conversation, to say the least. There is nothing that screams more intense than Mike Helton.“

While Helton had some strong words to share, NASCAR came up with a strict punishment for all those involved in the incident.

NASCAR penalized Kevin Harvick and his team with a hefty fine after the 2003 Richmond Raceway melee

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Kevin Harvick had a very impressive year in 2003. He won once, finishing 11 and 18 times in the top five and top ten, respectively. It could have been his sixth straight top-five finish had Ricky Rudd not tagged his bumper. While Harvick’s reaction on pit road might have been too intense, NASCAR showed zero tolerance for it.

In light of the incident, Harvick was penalized with a $35,000 fine, as reported by Crash.net. Along with that, he was placed on probation until December 31st of that year, as he violated Section 12-4-A of the NASCAR rule book. Even his then-crew chief, Todd Berrier, received a fine of $10,000 for violating Sections 12-4-A and 9-4-A.

In addition to that, jackman Mike Scearce was fined $5,000 and suspended for one race. Tire specialist Gene Pasquale also got suspended and was served with a fine of $2,500. On the other hand, Ricky Rudd’s team saw crew members Ken Barber and Kirk Almquist fined. Even his crew chief, Pat Tryson, was fined $5,000.

NASCAR indeed turned up with a lot of strict action. Rightly so, when young people look up to a sport like NASCAR, such acts have to be treated in a sensitive manner. It is surprising how Kevin Harvick remained so calm and cool while talking about the incident even now.

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