While the garage buzzed over the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, where Chase Elliott claimed a dramatic final lap victory passing Denny Hamlin, a major shake-up quietly unfolded days earlier. NASCAR confirmed the abrupt departure of race director Jusan Hamilton, effective immediately before that very race. This move, unrelated to performance per reports, added to a pattern of exits, like the senior executive Chip Wile’s planned step down after 13 years at season’s end to focus on family. Such changes hint at deeper shifts within the organization.

And amidst these shifts, Kevin Harvick, with 60 Cup Series wins and knowing the workings of the sport over two decades, didn’t shy away from weighing in on these developments. As for Hamilton, who joined NASCAR as an intern in 2012 and rose to managing director of competition operations by September 2022, he made history as the first Black race director for the Daytona 500 in 2022. But his sudden exit sparked questions about internal dynamics, and that’s where Harvick’s deep take comes in, shedding light on what NASCAR might need next.

Kevin Harvick calls for NASCAR overhaul amid recent exits

In a recent episode of the Happy Hour, the former driver didn’t mince words about Jusan Hamilton’s departure, starting with, “Well, I think the timing of it’s interesting. I think that when you look at everything that’s going on in NASCAR right now, Chip Wile, we saw, he’s been at NASCAR for a time as a longtime executive on the NASCAR side, ran, Daytona, Darlington, been in the sport for a long time from the bottom to the top.”

This sets the stage for Harvick‘s belief that these changes signal more to come, drawing on Wile’s journey from his PR roles to overseeing major tracks like Daytona since early 2021.

Building on that, Harvick added, “Those probably aren’t the last changes. I think NASCAR needs to be pretty aggressive and how they realign themselves as to whatever their plan is, but it needs to be pretty aggressive as far as whether it’s calling the races or changing the rules with the car, personnel, people, uh, you know, it appears to be time for a reboot from the bottom to the top.”

Harvick’s ask for a ‘clean house’ implies a comprehensive reboot, pushing for aggressive realignments in areas like race officiating and personnel to stabilize the sport. His urge stems from ongoing officiating issues, which he later described as “consistently inconsistent,” a frustration shared by co-host Mamba Smith, who emphasized filling roles with the right people for long-term direction.

“And I feel like the officiating—I mean, we’ve talked about the officiating on here several times. It hasn’t been stellar. And, you know, I think that, you know, the biggest thing is it’s been consistently inconsistent. So, you know, as a competitor and in a sport, you want things to be as consistent as possible when certain situations rise up. So, you know, I don’t think the officiating has been spectacular, to say the least,” Harvick said.

This ties directly to Hamilton‘s role in high-profile decisions, such as delaying cautions in multi-car incidents to allow drivers to continue, a practice aimed at fairness but often criticized for inconsistency. With Hamilton’s history-making ascent from intern to key operational figure since 2012, his sudden departure amid these critiques suggests NASCAR may be addressing calls for more reliable standards, as echoed by Smith’s note on avoiding erratic shifts in policy.

And speaking about Hamilton’s exit, while the possible causes remain unstated officially, his tenure did include controversies like the 2025 Daytona Duel finish, where he admitted on Hauler Talk, “So hindsight is always 20/20, and that’s one when you look back, I would say we could do it differently.” That call froze the field too early, handing Austin Cindric the win despite Erik Jones crossing first, leading to widespread debate over caution procedures.

Shifting from structural changes, Harvick also highlighted the personal side of racing life, using Tyler Reddick’s example. His comments remind everyone that drivers deal with real-world challenges off the track.

Harvick seeks empathy for Reddick’s family struggles

Tyler Reddick worked his way to a seventh-place finish starting from 12th on the grid in the Kansas playoff race, all while his four-month-old son, Rookie, was in a heart battle at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte. It happened after months of unexplored symptoms during pediatric checkups, until Reddick’s wife Alexa’s “mom gut” kicked in, and they discovered that Rookie was showing symptoms of heart failure that were missed.

Harvick highlighted this on his show, saying, “A lot of people just want to critique and criticize people for what they do in the race car. And a lot of times they forget that these are families and humans and have to deal with, you’ve got to deal with the circle of life while in the middle of this intense cycle of events that happen on and off the racetrack.”

This supplication highlights how fans occasionally ignore the family crisis toll, particularly when Reddick was juggling bedside issues with high-pressure competition through the social media calls on Alexa to pray. He commended Reddick in his fight through the ordeal, where fans should not forget the human factor behind on-track performance.

Harvick further explained the challenge, noting, “It can become extremely difficult to navigate life and perform at a high level. I felt like they were a little bit off this weekend, made a mistake, got back in the field, and got themselves back up in contention and had a chance at the end. But Tyler drove his b–t off. But, man, it is tough to navigate everything in life and race at the level that you want to race at. So we hope everything is good with Tyler and his family.”

These reflections draw from Reddick’s season of six top-5s and 11 top-10s amid an average finish of 14.9, showing resilience in snapping a three-race top-10 drought while prioritizing family over track demands.